The Soul Effect
by darkspace137
Summary: The Chosen Undead had completed her task, she had linked the fires only to be thrown into a entirely new universe with a new mission just as impossible as her last. but will she end up with more than she bargained for? terrible summery story is hopefully better
1. prologue

*Disclaimer: I disclaim ownership of anything from Mass Effect or Dark Souls which is property of their respective owners

AN: this is my first fanfic so it would me much appreciated if any criticism remained constructive

Many thanks to theluckyshot for being willing to work with a newbie like me and it him you should thank for this chapter being grammatically acceptable

That's all i have to say hope you enjoy the story

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(Lilith pov)

The Great lord of Cinder the destroyer of dragons and creator of kingdoms, the commander of the black Knights and unarguably the most powerful of the gods; Lord Gwyn, fell to his knees in the dark shadows of the kiln of the first flame, a beautifully curved blade impaling his heart halting its desperate attempts to keep the god alive and at the hilt of the blade a small woman stood battered, burnt, and bleeding but still alive if only by the barest of margins.

'Over' the tired undead woman thought as she dragged herself toward the blade standing in the middle of the first kiln leaving her beautiful blade within the kneeling body of the great lord

'it will finally be over' she thought even as her bright red eyes threatenedto close by their own devices she dragged her tired body to the sacred blade that stood ready in the center of the first kiln, the blade that was promised to end the madness, promised to free the undead from their never ending fate.

The woman with that promise in her heart lifted her leaden hand and forced her energy into the blade causing a fire to sprout about the blade and for an instant, a perfectly peaceful moment as the woman felt the warm essence of fire flow though her making her whole again sealing her wounds and rejuvenating her body, and as it did she dared believed 'it's finally over' the thought made tears come unbidden to her eyes her fight was finally over she could finally have peace.

But before she could fully comprehend the enormity of that thought, she felt fire poor into her veins she let out a startled yelp before turning to see the source of her pain

Her eyes widened as the found her hand encompassed in flames and not the flames of chaos that the undead woman wielded with such ease no these flames were born of the power of a undead soul, her undead soul

"No," whispered Lilith as she realized her folly she had allowed her desperate hope to blind her and now she would die for it.

She had been betrayed, tricked into using herself as fuel for the age of fire and the power of the gods. The realization hurt even more than the fire crawled along her skin, the king seeker had betrayed her; the gods had used her as a pawn.

And worst of all she would not be able to save them, all of the people she had come to know and care about would not be saved.

"NO!" said the woman in a stronger voice now; she had slain gods, demons, and dragons she would not die a meaningless death as a pawn for a withered old serpent.

She grit her teeth and clamped her right hand onto its flaming opposite and willed the flames to obey, willed them to extinguish, the flames however grew unabated soon coating her entire arm and crawling across her chest and back.

The woman had seen death more times than any creature alive or otherwise should have and in this flame she could see in it her own death; she could see that this was her end after all her battles, struggles, victory's, and defeats it was going to end.

As fire consumed her body she threwher head back and yelled her defiance and anger refusing to go silently into the end as her world was burned into nothingness.

But before the darkness overtook her she heard a soft kind voice saying "worry not my Lilith, my chosen undead there is still much for you to do, but rest now there are more battles to be fought and more blood to be spilled o chosen undead." Then the tormented woman knew no more.

OWO (scene change pov Shepard) OWO

A small lonely child crawled through a cold, dark air vent trying to stifle the sobs that threatenedto choke him and trying to be deaf to the pleas of help that echoed through the air vents.

As He crawled defending himself to the desperate cries of the colonists he wished with hope so strong it could only belong to a child that it would somehow be ok, that the alliance would swoopin and save the day and that he could go back to a time before his mother had shoved him in the vent and blocked it with her own body.

But somewhere inside of him a part whichhad been forced to grow up in the span of 10 minutes knew he would never see her again or his father.

It was then that it struck him, he would truly never see his mother or father again he would never see her again he would never feel her touch again and never hear her voice or her tinkling laugh or the deep good natured grumbles of his father or their gentle teasing. That thought, that single traitorous thought was nearly enough to break the young boy's will almost sending him into uncontrollable tears, but he forced himself forward clinging to one glimmer of hope; his sister, his young and kind sister who he had promised every day since she was born to take care of. He couldn't fail now if he did his sister would be all alone. The boy seized this thought and held it with all of his might as he forced himself to be deaf to the broken screams of the colonists and continue to crawl though the vents.

The boy desperately clinging to his purpose crawled deeper into the darknessuntil finally after what seemed like an eternity he saw light, finally after all this time he had crawled through the vents he could see literally and figuratively the light at the end of the tunnel. The boy crawled with renewed vigor as he final saw the soft twilight that promised safety and an escape from the heart wrenching cries that surrounded him.

The boy collided with the prefabricated vent cover and burst through it raising an unholy racket as he tumbled to the ground, the boy gave no heed to the racket it created instead he started running, he had no direction or destination he just wanted to be as far away from this place as his young legs could carry him.

Fate however would not give the boy any such chance because even as the boy began to run a lone Batarian stood aiming his arm at the boy waiting for the capture nets software to lock onto the fleeing child.

The boy however did not realize his mistake even as the electrified net closed around him and his world filled with pain, the boy screamed as paralyzing amounts of electricity flowed throughout his entire body.

The boy fell to the cold hard dirt, darkness already encroached on his mind, as he lay there he saw his capture and to be tormentor was laughing as if the torment of a child was nothing but good sport. But something else caught his eye, a spark floating in the middle of the air next to the Batarianwhom was apparently ignorant of the spark even as it grew, and grow it did. In moments the spark had become a ball of fire, floating in mid-air in defiance of physics and common sense.

The boy found himself unable to pry his eyes off of the ball of fire especially after it began to change shape; the flames at first a indistinct blob of fury soon transformed into a distinctly female form which seemed to be held lovingly by the hottest of infernos with a fiery parody of wings sprouting from its back. The boy, the young tired boy decided it must be an angel and as he watched a faint glimmer broke off from the flaming angel and fell within the boys reach the boy closed his hand on the burning hot glimmer before finally losing the battle for consciousness.

o-o (Shepard prologue end scene change) o-o

(In limbo)

Lilith better known as the Chosen Undead was now firmly under the impression that she was dead as she looked around where she was, surrounding her on all sides was a warm cocoon of darkness that with every passing moment threatened to draw her into sleep.

Lilith felt the exhaustion of her battle settle into her bones and she felt the urge to simply curl up and not wake up for a very long time, but before Lilith could do any such thing a voice boomed through her warm cocoon. The woman attempted to curl up into a ball to ignore the voice.

"Chosen undead," the voice full of ancient power called insistently causing the small woman to snap away any thought of sleep and instead to reaching forthe blade on her hip ready to face whatever being dared disturb her.

The woman's hand closed onto the curved blades hilt, only for her hand to find nothing blinking in surprise Lilith looked dumbly at the empty sheath that was attached to her hip.

She began to panic as memories began to flythrough her mind now knowing that her blade still laid in the heart of the burntout being that had once been the lord of cinder so instead Lilith reached behind her back to where Pricilla's dagger was sheathed but was cut short as the voice continued.

"BE STILL," the voice called forcefully causing the woman to stop her attempt to arm herself and peer into the darkness surrounding her.

"Chosen undead there is much you must know and our time is short" the voice said, "I am Gwynevere, the true daughter of Gwyn not the imitation that lies in Anor Londo" The woman gave a start at this remembering the giant of a woman that she had seen in the princesses chamber. But before she could contemplate this fact information began to pour into her mind images of places the scale of which Lilith could barely contemplate knowledge that refuted whatever the chosen undead had ever known, flashes of the vastness of a galaxy and many different races and knowledge of humanity living on a scale which she could never imagine. Lilith screamed as the knowledge continued to pour into her mind until finally the pain the images stopped leaving Lilith holding her head whimpering softly but the voice continued either ignorant or uncaring of her condition.

"You are to protect the lynch pin of this universe if you fail they will all be lost, none will survive," the voice paused for a moment before saying, "You have been given the knowledge you need to survive, use it well and complete your mission"

Lilith still reeling from the knowledge poured into her mind now saw an image appear inside her consciousness a young happy boy on a grassy plain "this is your charge" explained the gods voice

Lilith pondered this picture for a moment thinking of how young the boy seemed and how happy he was and how he could ever be someone who decided the fate of the galaxy.

The voice then said, "You cannot protect the boy from what fate wills of him but you must strengthen him so he does not fail, become one of this worlds warriors, become the boys strong right arm and he will not fail." As the voice spoke these words she felt pain echo through her mind as knowledge of the warriors she must become a part of came to the forefront of her mind.

Lilith however did not take kindly to the command. The memory of her betrayal at the hands of beings she had chosen to trust was still fresh in her mind, "I will not be your pawn," whispered Lilith.

"Be silent," boomed the voice, "You would be no pawn, you would be a warrior of my cause if you succeed you will be rewarded and if you fail you will die; nothing more nothing less."

The voice concluded its booming commands leaving no room for Lilith to interrupt by saying, "Our time here is done, go now, and fulfill your mission o chosen undead"

Lilith began to stutter a response along the lines of, "How will I survive without the bonfires." From her knowledge of the universe she was going to it had no bonfires and without the Estus that bonfires created. She would hollow and turn into a soul hungry shriveled up husk of herself.

The voice paused as if she had said something utterly ridiculous before saying "I would not send you on a task without a way for you to succeed, I give you my husband's mark chosen undead it will draw Estus from the world around you into your body," even as the voice was in the process of saying this she felt a burning sensation on her hip where her Darksign had long burned marking her eternally as one of the accursed undead.

She felt a warming flow of Estusbegin to diffuse from her Darksign as the Estusstrengthened her body. She saw that the warm darkness that surrounded her began to muddle into different colors and shapes.

As the light began to diffuse around her and she felt gravity take hold pulling her to places unknown. Lilith knew what she had to do, she would become one of these N7's as they called themselves and would protect the boy and afterwards she would find the peace she had long strived for and may all beings above and below have mercy on the gods if they crossed her, for she would have none.

Lilith pulled herself from her dark thoughts as her surroundings began to resolve into greater detail she noticed three things the first of which was that she was appearing on a grassy hill that was now badly singed by something, likely her appearance, secondly that the boy that she had come here seeking lay not far from her location but the final and most important thing she noticed was that her armor, a fine creation of steel and titanite was still in the process of melting from the first flame meaning the rivets of molten metal where running down her skin causing her abhorrent amounts of agony.

Even before her feet fully touched the ground Lilith began tearing at her armor removing first her chest pieceeven before her feet hit the ground, it crashed into the ground with a thump only to be quickly followed by her gauntlets, greaves, helmet, and finally her boots.

With the burning hot armor off of Lilith's body leaving her in a simple pair of underclothes made of something that Lilith herself would rather not know about.

Lilith stood baneful blood red eyes sweeping her surroundings she stood on a slightly singed hill that was a good sixty yards from a large containing wall seemingly for defensive purposes. 'A prefabricated building, probably a colony,' the voice in her mind whispered running over the knowledge she had been given, and by her feet lay a corpse burnt beyond any recognition, but much more importantly to Lilith was the still form of a young boy laying on the grass not far from the dead body.

She made her way over to the boy, carefulto avoidstepping on her still hot armor with her bare feet, her mind pegged the boy as Jack Shepard her charge in this place, Lilith ran a critical eye over him in a search for any injuries, finding none she knelt next to the boy and gathered him in her arms.

The moment her skin made contact with his, she felt a sensation that almost made her trip and fall over, her humanity the small black sprites that resided in her chest began to flutter about in a most unusual but no unpleasant way but Lilith had other things to worry about such as her charge possibly being in mortal danger. Ignoring the sensation she began to run while carrying the young boy, she ran toward the colony, there was much she had to do before the alliance arrived she would do as the god willed but at the first hint of treachery and she would be gone.

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AN: what you guys think good, bad, or ugly  
please drop a review and tell me


	2. Chapter 1

*Disclaimer: I disclaim ownership of anything from Mass Effect or Dark Souls which is property of their respective owners

AN: this is my first fanfic so it would me much appreciated if any criticism remained constructive

Many thanks to theluckyshot for being willing to work with a newbie like me and it him you should thank for this chapter being grammatically acceptable

That's all i have to say hope you enjoy the story

* * *

(19 years later)

Commander Jack Shepard looked out of the view port of the Normandy SR1 looking at the monolith that was known as the citadel while he fingered his pendent, the strange good luck charm that he had held for as long as he could remember it was the only physical evidence that he had ever found of his "angel" as he thought of the person he could have sworn he had seen appear despite what all the therapists and psychiatrists had told him and no matter what anyone said Shepard knew he was truly saved by someone after Akuze.

X Flash Back X

Shepard lay in a pained heap at the bottom of the small canyon he had fallen into 'their everywhere' Shepard thought as he ground his teeth at the thought of the thrasher maws that seemed to sprout out of every inch of dirt of the hellish planet he was on.

'I'm just a regular marine how the hell did this happen to me,' thought Shepard as he took stock of his situation 'these walls are too steep to climb,' he tried to rise only to fall again with pain spearing through his leg.

"God damn," he screamed through clenched teeth as he rolled on the ground clutching his leg his mind racing 'it's probably broken,' his thoughts stopped cold as he heard a loud clicking sound meaning either he was sharing the canyon with the most obnoxious cricket in existence or a thrasher maw knew where he was.

Seeing as the first option was rather unlikely, Shepard began to curse excessively as he lurched to his feet dragging himself through the canyon not caring where he ended up as long as he got away from where he was.

His pitiful attempt at flight however was cut short as the unmistakable head of a thresher maw loomed over the canyon he was in and its mouth opened in preparation to spew the acid that would end Shepard's life like so many of his fellow Marines that were sent on this mission with him.

Shepard unarmed and injured had no way of doing anything to the thrasher maw other than giving it the one finger salute before it killed him and seeing as the creature wouldn't even understand the insult Shepard settled for looking it in the face and silently prayed to his angel as he called the possibly imaginary woman that he had seen as a child, that it would end quickly without the pain and agony that he imagined his death would entail.

But instead of acid pouring into the canyon ending his life the canyon filled with something else, a soft white light permeated the canyon emerging impossibly from his armor the light illuminated the entire canyon and the maw stopped as if enthralled by the light it gave a single click of its mandibles before sliding away from the canyon as if nothing was there.

Shepard stood in shock for a moment before he capitalized on this opportunity and began to limp slowly down the canyon all traces of doubt were washed from his mind SOMETHING had saved him from those batarians as a child SOMETHING had gotten him off Mindoir safely and to his aunts household on earth and whatever it was still was watching out for him.

X Flash Back End X

Shepard shook of his memories as Joker informed him that the ship was five minutes out of dock. His thoughts turned to the unpleasant events to come Shepard hated politicians, hated them with a vengeance and it turned out that Captain Anderson had planned for him and his ground team to go give a full debrief to ambassador Udina and the council. 'O joy,' thought Shepard as he radioed his team to meet him in the airlock, it was going to be a long day.

-_- Scene change -_-

Shepard sighed as he descended the steps from the council's platform trailed by Ashley and Kaiden they had completely disregarded everything Shepard and Captain Anderson had brought before them even allowing Saren to slander Anderson and Shepard during the meeting.

All and all it had been a complete disaster Saren still walked free and the attack on Eden Prime went unanswered for and in it the alliance had been liberally slandered. Shepard sighed as he stood and waited for the Ambassador and Anderson to join him, the Ambassador wasted no time condemning Anderson for the disastrous attempt to convict Saren only to be pointedly ignored by Anderson as he turned to Shepard and said "I know Saren if he is involved with the Geth all our colonies are at risk, we have to act now and stop him."

Udina who had stopped his ranting when he realized he was being ignored and upon hearing Anderson's statement he contributed something other than hot air although somewhat grudgingly. "As a spectre he is virtually untouchable," Udina said thoughtfully, "We have to expose him before we can act against him."

Shepard seeing that the ambassador had made a completely logical statement, much to his shock, began to think of avenues through which they could expose Saren. But before he could think of something concrete he heard Ashley chime in from behind him, "What about the c-sec officer, he seemed like he was onto something."

Shepard who himself didn't come up with any better alternatives for what course of action to take looked at captain Anderson and was about to ask if he had any means to locate the Turian, but before Shepard could ask his question Ambassador Udina stated, "I have a contact in C-sec his names Harkin you could go talk to him."

Captain Anderson made a face when the Ambassador mentioned Harkins name. "Harkin's an ass, I wouldn't waste my time on him if you have any alternatives," he said with contempt.

The Ambassador snapped at Anderson, "You won't have to; you're off the investigation, we can't have the council using your history against us."

Shepard hearing this turned his head to face the Ambassador so fast his neck cracked, "You can't just cut Captain Anderson out of the loop." He growled out.

The Ambassador on the other hand simply put his nose in the air and said, "We can't have the council or Saren have any advantage over us."

Shepard now clearly remembered why he hated politicians and was about ready to bite the man's head off.

Thankfully before anymore words could be exchanged captain Anderson himself stepped between the two men, "He's right Shepard go talk to Harkin and get whatever you can out of him."

Shepard was not at all happy with the captain being taken out of the investigation but seeing as Anderson himself had agreed to it there was nothing he could do.

Shepard turned away from the conversation to go find this Harkin guy and get this over with as fast as possible.

But as Shepard began to walk away he heard Captain Anderson call him, "Shepard," the captain said as he drew up beside the commander he continued. "Harkin's probably getting drunk down in choras den, and one other thing go pick up the Normandy's newest marine," said Anderson.

He tapped his Omni-tools display causing Shepard's to ping in response indicating that a file had been successfully received. However, before Shepard could look at it Anderson told him what it was, "That's the dossier for the new marine, she is down in the wards now getting her final med clearance she should be done in an hour that will give you time to get a hold of Harkin then pick her up for her next move she's supposed to wait for you in C-sec."

Shepard nodded affirmative to Anderson before turning and walking to the nearest transport station activating the cab sitting there and waving Ashley and Kaiden to get in before he climbed in himself. As he did the door closed with a hiss and the car took off with a soft lurch as it quietly speed them toward their destination in the wards. As it did that Shepard tapped on his Omni-tool commanding it to bring up the dossier that he had received from Anderson as it finally came up after some further coaxing by Shepard and as soon as it did Shepard's eyes widened at the information he was seeing.

"What's going on commander?" Asked Kaiden as he saw Shepard's reaction to what he was reading.

"Reading the new marines dossier," said Shepard

"Well don't keep us in suspense read it," prodded Ashley

Shepard began to read the information in front of him, "Lilith Reyes, no official record of birth assumed to be born and abandoned on earth, medical analysis places her at 28 years of age, signed on with the military as a way out of the slums, assaulted a superior officer and got busted down the ranks and ended up on a suicide mission on Torfan which ended with three fourths of the unit dead and it says that she killed every baterian in the base regardless of if they surrendered or not."

'what kind of mad woman did Anderson recruit, ' Shepard thought as he read into her service record most of which simply covered black ink leaving only the record of her training in the N7 program.

"Promoted to N7 status following the events on Torfan, excel in the use of sniper rifles and armed close quarter combat but shows below average skill in other combat areas."

'that's amazing,' thought Shepard after all the N7 programs idea of proficient with sniper rifles is be able to hit a two inch target from a mile away, not to mention reaching you sniping point completely undetected. Shepard could only imagine what she was capable of in close quarters combat if the N7 program stated that she excelled in it.

The reaction to Shepard's reading was immediate Kaiden began to mutter, "The Butcher of Torfan, They send the Bloody Butcher of Torfan to go with us on diplomatically important missions."

But all Kaiden's statement earned him was a raised eyebrow from Shepard and a smack on the back of the head from Ashley as she said, "You haven't even met the woman yet and your already complaining about her."

To which Kaiden attempted to respond, "You can't get a track record like that without being a bloody madman," said Kaiden before a glare from Shepard quieted him.

"We will all," Shepard said while maintaining his glare pining Kaiden to his seat "Reserve judgment of this woman until we know her at the very least." But even as he finished his statement he couldn't help but wonder if the woman was truly as blood thirsty as her dossier promised. Shepard sighed internally, he certainly hoped not; it was hard enough just to get people to get along on the Normandy without some basket case thrown into the mix.

=_= Scene Change =_=

Lilith POV

Lilith leveled her red eyed glare at the incessantly happy and cheery doctor that seemed completely immune to her glare, a glare that had made grown men piss themselves in fear before. However, the doctor had apparent immunity to it making Lilith glower more as she sat on top of a plain metal bed inside of Dr. Michel's office.

When Lilith realized that glaring at the doctor wouldn't get her out of this examination or the ridiculous medical gown she was wearing any faster she sighed and leaned back on the table while holding onto the edge and staring at the ceiling. As she continued to wait for the doctor to do whatever doctors do while they make their patient wait.

Lilith sat on the metal table absolutely bored; in all reality she didn't need a medical examination. The Estus constantly pouring into her body by the fire god Flin's mark given to her by the before mentioned gods wife kept Lilith's body it top condition at all times. Any small injuries would heal almost 4 times faster than a normal human would and even fatal injuries would recover given a few days. But of course Lilith couldn't exactly say that 'hey I'm undead you probably couldn't kill me no matter how you tried' yeah that wouldn't exactly go well. So she sat because even though Lilith The Chosen Undead didn't need a medical examination Lilith Reyes the human marine needed to sit though the doctors prodding.

Lilith glanced around taking in every feature of her surroundings a habit burnt into her by her long dangerous travels in Lodrin and reinforced by her time in the darkest slums of earth Lilith saw nothing that could be of immediate threat to her and also there wasn't anything she could use as an impromptu weapon in the unlikely event that she ended up in a fight.

The doctor's office was a simple room separated into two areas a waiting room and an area with several beds for treating patrons with a wall stretching half way across the room dividing it no doubt to give the patients in the beds a measure of privacy from people in the waiting area.

Lilith sat stony faced under the doctors watchful eye, but despite her calm if somewhat annoyed appearance in reality there where a multitude of emotions swimming within her gut, ranging from rising panic to flat out anger it had been a hard number of years waiting for Shepard to grow up to fulfill his role.

It was quite a transition after all moving from a place where souls made the world go round and all you have to do to get some is kill something then moving to a world where credits and favors were the currency of choice not to mention the years she had been down in the darkest slums of earth and that insane special forces or as the alliance called it N7 training, and subsequently her near damning stint in Torfan, her time in this universe had been far from easy or happy but you wouldn't hear Lilith complain she had learned quite a bit and was now more than ever able to survive in just about any situation she would be thrown into.

'But,' thought Lilith as she considered her colorful past in this universe, 'the question is and has always been if I can keep Shepard alive as well.'

Lilith sighed again as she continued to stare at the ceiling before she went ramrod stiff as she felt a hand on her body as she snapped her eyes down to look at the offending appendage a dozen memories flashed through her mind and none of them where good and many of them ended up with her covered in blood of someone or another.

Lilith however had nothing to worry about on this occasion though because the hand belonged to Dr. Michel who was doing nothing more than attaching some contraption to check her blood pressure also the doctor quickly apologized for startling her and the examination when on without much incident.

Lilith's mind continued to churn as she contemplated the best way for her to deal with Shepard, 'Well I have to stay close to him to protect him how would I do that.'

Lilith thought realizing that her nonexistent social skills would prove to be a problem and she would have to give Shepard another reason to take her along 'hmm, I could show him how competent of a solider I am.' She thought as she considered her options before an idea crossed her mind, 'Well Shepard isn't bad looking I could always…' as soon as this thought encroached on Lilith's mind her face became enveloped in an explosive blush, 'What the hell are you thinking brain!' Lilith screamed in her mind as she did the mental equivalent of smashing her head into a stone wall as she somehow kept her external features showing some level of sanity despite the turmoil her mind was experiencing.

In an attempt to distract herself Lilith looked over the ridiculous robe that the doctor had put her in, it was supposed to maintain her modesty while letting the doctor have access to everywhere she need to for the basic examination Lilith was currently suffering though, the result ended with Lilith looking like she had put on a bath robe made of paper and worse yet the doctor had required Lilith to remove her unmentionables for the examination for what reason Lilith dearly did not wish to know.

Lilith sighed and turned her mind to other things as she thought, 'I hope this gets wrapped up soon.'

Lilith's mind continued to drift as the doctor poked and prodded but she drifted back to reality as she heard the door to the doctor's office noisily open.

The Doctor frowned hearing the door as well and said, "That's strange I don't have another appointment today." Before saying somewhat worriedly, "Maybe it's someone with an emergency, I will go take a look could you please take the first aid kit out of the cabinet Miss Reyes," the doctor said while pointing at one of the lockers in her office that was clearly marked with a red cross.

Lilith obediently pulled out a box marked first aid from the cabinet/locker contraption and out of curiosity opened it to view its contents however she saw nothing but a couple medi-gel applicators, a few mysterious syringes, and a scalpel but before Lilith could notice anything else she heard the distinctive sound of firearms activating.

Lilith was immediately on guard instinctively taking stock of her person and the analysis was disheartening she was completely unarmed and unarmored though she was still far from harmless her odds of getting out of this situation cleanly were not good.

Lilith never one so sit idly while danger approaches looked around the room looking for something that could give her an edge. Taking stock of her surroundings Lilith found her eyes on the medical kit sitting in front of her and the unassuming scalpel within it.

Lilith snatched up the scalpel, a simple thing made out of some reinforced metal with a blade just over an inch long and a hilt three times larger, it was small and never meant to be a weapon but Lilith had survived with less and likely against more dangerous foes.

Lilith hauled herself off the medical bed she was occupying with her impromptu weapon in hand just in time to hear a gruff voice yell

"What did you tell him, what did you tell Vakarian."

And the doctors voice reply in a frightened tone, "Nothing, I didn't tell him anything"

Lilith began to pad bare foot along the wall separating the doctor's office into two portions but much to her distress and anger her foot collided with a waste bucket which caused it to rattle loudly and send a small spear of pain to race though her foot.

'Damn it,' silently cursed Lilith angry about both the pain and noise stopping in an attempt to not make anymore noise hoping the thugs were incompetent enough to not hear the racket.

Her hopes went unanswered as she heard one of the thugs say to the others

"What was that, I thought the doctor was supposed to be alone," before he yelled assumedly at the doctor. "Who's back there?"

To which the doctor replied hastily, "No one, just a patient," after which Lilith heard a voice say.

"Damn it Jake whoever is back there heard everything we got to take care of them."

To which another voice probably the aforementioned Jake responded "Shut up! I ain't killing a helpless woman alright, Sumo go get whoever is back there and bring them here."

As Lilith reached the corner standing to ambush this Sumo person she thought humorously, 'A punk with a sense of chivalry now I've heard everything.'

Lilith cleared her mind and coiled herself like a spring while the faint press of boots on metal steadily came closer.

Moments later one of the thugs came around the corner the man was fairly unremarkable the only discerning feature of the man was his prodigious gut presumably the reason he was referred to as sumo, the man came around the corner his eyes searching all the wrong places as he continued to walk toward where Lilith was but still not noticing her either because of Lilith's small stature or his incompetence she did not know.

Soon Sumo was standing within arms reach of her still searching. Lilith decided to cut his search short and stuck out with her impromptu weapon. She speared the scalpel though the unfortunate man's throat and pined his tongue to the roof of his mouth.

The fat mans brown eyes were wide with panic as they met her red eyed gaze it was at that moment that Lilith realized her mistake, if she had a proper knife it would have penetrated the man's brain killing him but her small scalpel only lodged in the man's mouth and though he wasn't going to be yelling for help he wasn't dying either.

'Time to improvise,' she thought.

She swept the feet from under the much larger man and pulled out her scalpel as she did, the man hit the ground forcefully hitting the ground with a load thud but the blood flooding his mouth stopping him from yelling out.

The man hit the ground letting out a wet gurgle of pain and not one to waste an opportunity Lilith was on him in moments taking her little scalpel and taking advantage of its sharp cutting edge she drew it across the man's throat cutting it open clipping one of the arteries causing blood to spurt out but Lilith was not satisfied she had tasted the man's soul and had spilled his blood the woman slashed her scalpel over man's throat over and over again until it resembled a well-used scratching post rather than any part of the human body.

When the man finally stopped moving underneath her Lilith felt the borderline euphoric feeling of souls entering her body, she felt her back arch and her mouth open of its own volition before she tore out the scalpel with a viscous smile.

'It's been far too long since I've killed something up close and personal Lilith thought,' before she turned her gaze to the now bloody scalpel in her hand and much to Lilith's delight she saw that it was undamaged and still sharp enough for her purposes.

Lilith gracefully got up from Sumo's corpse and began to stalk toward where the voices continued to come from eager for more blood.

She heard the cadaver's compatriots discussing what to do with the doctor, "We'll just kill her and leave the body Fist can cover us," said one of the thugs before he was quickly countered by the voice that was previously named as Jake.

"I already told you were not going to be killin a helpless lady, and before that where the hell is Sumo!"

Lilith almost jumped in surprise as the voice was accompanied by a man dressed identical to sumo came around the corner taking in the sight before him he noticed three things; the first was the large corpse which held a remarkable semblance to one of his compatriots lying on the ground that was covered in blood and still occasionally twitching, second was that there was a pretty red eyed woman who was wearing a smile that belonged to the devil himself standing not two steps from the bloody body, and lastly that the woman was holding a blood covered scalpel in her small hand, the only comment the still unnamed thug had was, "Oh shit!"

Lilith grit her teeth and growled a string of curses that would make Admiral Hacket blush as she dashed forward low to the ground scalpel held tightly in both hands.

He was far too slow to line up a shot on the woman.

As she reached him she rammed into the man making him double over and knocking his gun from his hands as she rammed the scalpel into his side, the small blade seeking his liver and finding it scoring a fatal blow on the organ.

The man was dead but he wouldn't realize it for another minute or two for now all he knew was that the short woman had just poured a barrel full of liquid pain into his gut.

As the man staggered but stayed on his feet Lilith continued to growl curses as she spun the still living man to face the other thugs. Lilith kicked the man in front of her looking over his shoulder to take in the doctor's office while keeping her body behind her newly recruited meat shield.

There were two thug's left one standing a few feet in front of her with his pistol in hand and the other holding Dr. Michel with two hands as she struggled. Lilith immediately prioritizing the armed man, she jabbed her scalpel into the man's back and pushing him forward toward the armed thug.

"Shit!" the man cursed as he tried to get a shot at the half dressed mad woman without shooting his comrade. In his panic he did not back away from the encroaching woman.

But any chance of this disappeared as she yanked the bloody scalpel from her meat shields liver and slashed the front of the armed thugs face who stopped for a second and reached up to touch his face wondering why he could no longer see anything he felt a torrent of blood welling up from where his eyes should be yelling, "Holy shit!" However, those where his last words as Lilith whipped the blade by him again this time leaving a bloody line on his throat.

Lilith dropped her meat shield leaving him in a curled up whimpering ball as he slowly bled out on the cold metal floor of the doctor's office. The woman turned her baneful red eyes onto the last thug who was standing behind Dr. Michel using her as a shield while pointing his gun with shaking hands at Lilith as he stuttered "St-St-STAY BACK!"

Lilith silently regarded him with her red eyes but stayed silent. The thug however was more than happy to make noise as he yelled, "What the hell are you!" His eyes continued to flash between the bloody corpses of his comrades and Lilith's red eyes.

His panic caused Lilith to raise an eyebrow as she stared at him before she said, "I'm the woman whose going to kill you what else do you need to know."

The man pointed his gun with a shaking hand at her and pulled the trigger the man however was shaking far too much to get any kind of an accurate shot. Lilith dashed forward as a shot flew over her shoulder and the man tried to turn the gun on the doctor but before he could Lilith was on him gripping his hand. The man's wide scared eyes meet Lilith's red eyes he opened his mouth to say something but as he did Lilith thrust her scalpel into the underside of the thug's wrist making the man to scream and drop his gun.

The thug released the doctor in favor of clutching his impaled wrist looking at Lilith with wide disbelieving eyes and opened his mouth but before he was able to say anything Lilith jammed her scalpel into the man's eye into his brain killing him instantly before wrenching the scalpel back out.

Lilith looked over her impromptu weapon what met her gaze was a dulled and slightly bent scalpel she was a little disheartened by the scalpels condition but she figured that there was nothing that she could do after all the scalpel though a cutting tool was not intended to be a weapon.

With all immediate threats dead Lilith looked over to the doctor who was sitting on the floor staring at the body of the thug that was lying next to her.

"Doctor?" Lilith tried to be sound calming as she talked to the doctor but Dr. Michel's eyes merely stayed wide and staring not truly comprehending what Lilith was saying, but before Lilith could try to get through to the doctor she heard a beep that signaled someone had activated the sequence to open the door her head immediately snapped to face the door

'Damn do they have back up?' Lilith questioned herself

Deciding not to leave anything to chance Lilith grabbed the unresponsive doctor by the neck of her shirt and dragged her to the side of the door where she simply continued to stare at the dead men littering the floor of her office. Lilith however had other things to be concerned about namely the fact that an unknown number of armed thugs where likely to be coming through the door. The question wasn't whether she could kill them but it was if she could kill them without a ticklish little question like 'why can you survive a bullet to the head' being asked. Lilith crouched like a coiled spring as the door opened and the first thing that came through was an armored arm wielding a pistol the site made Lilith curse. 'Damn it, they're wearing armor, well time to get creative' Lilith thought as she grabbed the arm sticking through the doorway and pulled it forward while sweeping her leg into his legs which caused what she could now see was an armored man who had a red strip down the arm of his armor onto his back in the door way and before anyone could so much as blink Lilith was astride him with the scalpel to his throat.

"Nobody move," said Lilith clear and calmly as she looked at the other men in the doorway a quick glance showed that there were a man a woman and a Turian standing surprised in the door, pointing various weapons in Lilith's direction but not firing yet, way before she turned her eyes to the man she had pinned under her. She blinked as she looked at him he looked strangely familiar she leaned closer to his face. He had a fairly handsome face but what stuck her the most was his piercing blue eyes which were wide with surprise Lilith felt that they could see her soul and shivered at the sight of those bright blue orbs but still unable to pin down where she had seen the man before Lilith leaned closer taking in his every feature she continued to think, 'Where have I seen you before?'

Lilith however was forced to stop her ponderings when the man said, "Um, hi."

Lilith looked him in the eye and finally noticed that she was basically nose to nose with the strangely familiar man, Lilith noticing her proximity to the man's face felt her humanity drum an merry beat something that Lilith was shocked and a little distressed about, Lilith however had another much more distressing thing that she had failed to note before now. She had in fact have seen the man before and knew exactly who he was and worst of all she knew what she was supposed to do because at that moment in time Lilith Reyes also known as and the chosen undead, slayer of the Gravelord, and Seath the scale less dragon, and the lord of cinder was sitting half naked on top of Commander Jack Shepard and holding a scalpel to his throat.

Lilith immediate recoiled pulling the knife away from Shepard's throat as fast as was humanly possible all the while Lilith was screaming bloody murder within her head, 'Oh god what the hell am I supposed to do'

Luckily while her mind ran around in circles chasing its own tail her mouth was making its own venture. "Hello," said Lilith in a remarkably calm voice that made Shepard and everyone else in the room blink most likely all wondering what kind of person this blood stained woman must be to seem so calm while she was in what could best be described as a Mexican standoff.

Shepard recovering somewhat from his surprise simply went along with the very strange direction the conversation was going in, "I don't want to be rude but do you mind getting off of me" now it was Shepard's turn to be stared at in silent disbelief.

His question however managed to bring Lilith's full attention again to Shepard only to be distracted by a very strange sensation that Lilith just noticed, her humanity was moving, 'What?' thought Lilith as she glanced down to see if she had been speared through or something when she wasn't looking but no her body looked completely intact but still her humanity moved, 'Where have I felt this before?' She thought but before she could ponder this further she was interrupted by Shepard clearing his throat.

Lilith blinked then realized exactly what position she was in, currently she was straddling Shepard's waist and to make matters worse the medical robe she was wearing despite its courageous effort simply wasn't meant to be worn while performing stressful physical activities and Lilith's movements while killing the men where proving too much for it and it was literally coming apart at the seams.

Lilith however had other concerns such as the fact the she was still sitting on top of Shepard in a very easy to misinterpret situation, Lilith realizing the position she was in immediately started to get up only to slip on the blood that was splattered around the floor and with a squeak most unbecoming of someone as feared as the slayer of gods and butcher of mortals Lilith went once again down on top of Shepard though this time in a much less dignified position. Lilith now found herself draped over Shepard's body and as Lilith took a moment to take stock of her body her eyes narrowed into red slits as she grit her teeth and growled out. "Shepard… where do you think your hand is"

Shepard with panic clear in his eyes glanced down, he had put his hand up in an attempt to soften the woman's fall but it now seems like this action would backfire against him because his hand was currently holding a soft mound that would surly spell his death as Lilith leaned herself off him and his hand and drew her arm back all Shepard could say in his defense was. "Please, don't kill me?"

X_X Scene change X_X

Shepard grumbled as he nursed his now red cheek as the cab made its way to the destination of Choras den all the while Lilith was looking at the floor wishing a black hole would open to swallow her, to make matters worse Ashley, as Lilith learned the female marines name was, was also sitting in the cab trying and failing to hide her amusement, and along the way they had picked up a Krogan with a rather impressive set of scars and a marine who had a stick up his ass, both of which had their own unique way of reacting to Shepard's still red cheek .

The Krogan whose name was Wrex merely thumped Shepard on the back and told him, "Good luck with that one, you'll need it".

The marine named Kaiden on the other hand seemed to be more worried about the fact that she had killed four men without much in the way of justification but had taken the fact the Shepard didn't have a second smile as good enough reason to assume she wasn't going to try to kill them all at the moment.

The result was a cab that was as silent as a tomb with the exception of occasional giggling from Ashley.

'The whole misunderstanding with the knife was bad enough but I had to go and slap him,' thought Lilith as she glanced shyly up at Shepard who was looked out the window and grumbled about how all the women he meets are crazy.

Lilith sighed and lost herself in her memories of other times to distract herself from the absolute silence that permeated the cab.

X Flashback X

Lilith dragged her sorry hide to the bonfire that lay at the center of the fire link shrine which was the impromptu home of any undead that had anything worth being called sanity in their heads. As she finally settled herself within the warm embrace of the bond fire she striped off her armor to examine it. Glancing at it she grimaced 'Andrei would cry if he saw this,' Lilith thought as she looked over the punctures, cuts, and scratches that her armor had accumulated during her latest stint in Lodrin. Lilith laid her armor down and stretched out on the soft grass gazing up at the sky.

Tomorrow Lilith would have to crawl through the horror of the undead and fight for her life and her souls but today right now she was safe she was warm and she was happy.

But soon Lilith's thought turned to a bitter betrayal and the curse that was undead consuming all that she had come to know and had come to love.

X Flash Back End X

As the cab landed in the grimy ally near choras den Lilith yanked herself out of her memories closed her eyes and cleared her mind as she climbed out of the cab

This wasn't the time for doubts; this was not the time for mercy, this was the time to kill.

Lilith opened her red eyes blazing with a dangerous fire. She would kill, kill, and kill again until her task was complete.

The mortals that dared stand against her charge knew nothing of the god killing calamity that was about to befall them.

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AN: what you guys think good, bad, or ugly  
please drop a review and tell me


	3. Chapter 2

*Disclaimer: I disclaim ownership of anything from Mass Effect or Dark Souls which is property of their respective owners

AN: this is my first fanfic so it would me much appreciated if any criticism remained constructive

Many thanks to theluckyshot for being willing to work with a newbie like me and it him you should thank for this chapter being grammatically acceptable

That's all i have to say hope you enjoy the story

* * *

Shepard

Shepard ran his hand down his face and pried his eyes open, he had trudged through every inch of Intel the alliance had on Saren and the Geth pouring through every report from paranoid Geth sightings on border worlds to combat reports from Eden Prime Shepard had read everything that the alliance had no matter how dubious it seemed, but he had failed to find any pattern or any scrap of insight to Sarensmovements or motivations.

Shepard leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling of his darkened room, his desk light was the only bright light anywhere on the ship as the engineers had dimmed the lights during the night cycle of the Normandy; the only people still awake was a skeleton crew of engineers and the backup pilot, everyone else was fast asleep.

'Who could blame them,' thought Shepard after all they were still more than 20 hours out from Therum, their current destination so in the end Shepard was the only member of the ground crew who was still awake as he poured over Intel in the silence of his cabin.

Shepard sighed into the silent darkness before deciding, 'Just a bit of shut eye than I'll get back to searching the Intel for Saran's movements.' He thought convincing himself to crawl into his hard, cold but all too welcoming bed.

X_X Scene change X_X

Shepard lay on his back thrashing as he was assailed by shadows from all sides the shadows tore at him while voices from the past echoed from their unseen mouths "Why didn't you save us?" they asked, "why did you survive," they demanded. "Why did you fail us," they accused. Shepard continued to thrash trying to free himself from the shadows but they held fast. Suddenly on grabbed his head and wrenched it to face it, this shadow however was different this shadow glared at him with his sisters green eyes, "Why." She accused, "why did everyone else die and not you?"

Shepard shook his head loose as the shadow dissolved and began to thrash with a renewed vigor but to no avail the shadows held him fast as Shepard felt a biting pain in his leg his head snapped down to look at a shadow that had sunk its fingers into his leg only to find himself staring into the face of corporal Jenkins. "You could have saved me," said the shadow wearing Jenkins face.

Shepard cried out like a trapped animal desperately trying to escape the shadows wearing the faces of the dead and the accusations they spoke.

o.0.O.O.0.o  
Pov change

Lilith

Lilith sat alone in the darkened mess hall and twiddled her thumbs as she let her mind drift to places unknown; but soon she reeled it back as it began to drift into memories Lilith would much rather not have on her mind. Lilith sighed and tried to think of something to do, the steady supply of Estus that flowed from the mark surrounding her dark sign effectively eliminated her bodies need for rest and though she still slept to rest her mind Lilith found that she needed at most four hours of sleep, though this is priceless during drawn out combat it also meant that Lilith spent a lot of her time bored out of her mind while the regular humans slept.

It had never been a problem for Lilith before after all her status as a undead lent her more exotic benefits such as the fact that she did not visibly age, even nearly half a century since her awaking within the walls of the undead asylum she still looked nearly the same as she did then; the only difference were the endless pattern of perfectly healed scars covering most of her body which was another benefit of being undead Estus caused her wounds to heal all but perfectly, even her worst injures became nothing but light lines on her pale skin.

Lilith didn't mind the scars they were the evidence of what had shaped her from the scratches of the manacles that had held her firm for decades in the undead asylum to the long lines down her back where she had gotten too close to a drakes claws or even the rows of punctures on her leg were one of those blasted dogs from the undead burg had caught her by surprise. Lilith thought about the scars little more than white lines crisscrossing her body with the medical technology of this world she could have them removed but she didn't want to they were all a part of her they were physical evidence of the events that had shaped her so she would keep them no matter what anyone else said.

Lilith's thoughts drifted away from her past and to the before mentioned regular humans 'Could have gone worse,' thought Lilith to herself.

Though all and all the crew paid her little attention with the addition of several more exotic crew members and finding out that their commander had been upgraded to a spectre most of the excitement passed Lilith over and she had no problem with that.

'After all,' Lilith thought, 'the less people pay close attention to me the less likely any slip up I may or may not make will go unnoticed.'

What Lilith did find surprising was how easily the crew adjusted to its new leader the crew of the Normandy had absolutely no problems with Shepard taking over its command; though some did question having aliens aboard navigator Presley being the most vocal of that group.

Lilith on the other hand had no such concerns the aliens though they could be security risks seeing as they were on the most advanced ship the alliance had ever build had not shown any hostile intentions towards Shepard himself and if they did they wouldn't live to regret it.

'Though,' Lilith thought, 'they seem quite skilled, I may have a problem taking them down with out using more exotic means.'

That train of thought brought a frown to Lilith's face as she remembered that after hiding her real abilities for years she now had to keep a tighter reign on them then ever because more than anyone else if Shepard caught wind of her powers the jig would be up, the mission failed.

Lilith glanced over to the closed door that lead to Shepard's personal cabin. 'What is it about Shepard that,' was all her mind was able to get out before her chest blossomed with a decidedly unpleasant pressure almost like there was an Taurus demon that had decided to use her as a seat cushion.

'What the hell.' Thought Lilith as she clutched her chest as her humanity felt like they where trying to beat their way out.

Lilith immediately came to a rather panic inducting conclusion. 'Something happened to Shepard,' was the only logical conclusion Lilith could find after observing the way her humanity reacted to him there had to be a connection between their current actions and Shepard.

Lilith looked over to Shepard's room, she had been sitting in the mess lost in thought for the last hour, or so, and there wasn't a snowballs chance in hell that someone had snuck past her into Shepard's room, seeing as they would need to open the bloody door to get in.

'Still better to check it out,' Lilith's mind whispered, 'even if it's nothing it's better to check.'

Lilith got up from her chair and strode over to the door leading to Shepard's cabin but her hand froze an instant from activating the holographic control panel.

'Wait,' she thought desperately, 'this is Shepard's private room if I just stroll in he may get the wrong idea.'

Lilith stopped for a moment and mentally pulled the petals of a flower one petal 'go in,' two petals 'don't go in,' three petals 'go.'

But before Lilith could get any further in her internal debate she heard a muffled cry come from Shepard's room, and in response her humanity began to pulse in a more panicked tempo this sudden shift in their movement startled Lilith unfortunately for her that small movement moved her hand close enough to trigger the doors activation panel.

Lilith glared at her traitorous limb as the door processed the command and quietly slid open revealing a room that to would be shrouded with blackness to human eyes but Lilith's supernatural red orbs cut though the gloom revealing a moderately sized but fairly empty room with a table with a lamp on it in the middle of the room with a computer terminal nestled against the wall next to the door and a writing desk next to a bed but otherwise the room was dishearteningly empty.

Lilith looked over the room. 'No pictures?' She questioned, 'no pictures, no souvenirs, nothing personal,' she thought worriedly as she looked over the expanse of the room and didn't see a single thing that marked this room as Shepard's.

Lilith however shook off her worry as she remembered why she had in fact decided to enter a superior officers quarters while before mentioned superior officer was asleep… in his boxers.

Lilith walked over to where Shepard lay and as she came closer her heart began to beat a staccato rhythm to match her humanities panicked beat. Soon Lilith found herself standing over Shepard and there she could clearly see why her humanity was panicking Shepard was having some kind of awful nightmare; the man's face was twisted into a horrified expression and he was weakly thrashing against the thin blanket he had over him as if it was trying to squeeze the life out of him.

Lilith sighed and kneeled down next to Shepard's bed side. 'He was having a nightmare,' she thought as she felt her heart ache at the pain and desperation scrawled on Shepard's face. Lilith sat down on the edge of the bed careful not to disturb Shepard's sleep, she had dealt with quite a few of Shepard's nightmares as she flew with him on an overcrowded freighter heading to earth to try to find the rest of Shepard's family members during the long and fairly unpleasant trip the boy had experienced daily nightmares and Lilith was forced to go to great lengths to relieve them.

As her nostrils filled with a heady smell Lilith did her best to ignore her pulsing humanity and hammering heartbeat. She ran her hand through Shepard's short military regulation cut hair and began to softly sing a half remembered lullaby.

She stroked his hair as she quietly sung about calm moon lit nights and of lonely life of immortals.

o.0 O.O 0.o

POV Change

Shepard continued his hopeless struggle against the shadow hoard that assailed him from all sides pulling at him cursing him for his life. Shepard clenched his eyes shut at the foggy pain and fought for all he was worth against the shadows; however, his struggle soon ended as his dream began to fill with soft warm light, the shadows vanished before the light and as Shepard opened his eyes he found himself in a very different scene.

Gone were the shadows bearing the voices of dead men and women, gone were the shadowy trees that never seemed to end. Instead he felt a calmingly warm hand run through his hair and felt a soft warmth underneath his head when he opened his eyes he found himself looking up at a blonde woman who's form was obscured by flames coming from her body in a fiery parody of wings, but instead of being frightened by the sight Shepard was comforted by it feeling safe and warm he somehow knew nothing bad would ever befall him with this woman. Soon he felt blackness encroach on his mind Shepard took another glance up at the woman's face in an attempt to take in her features but a combination of the flaming light behind her and her beautiful golden hair draped around her face spoiled his efforts. Shepard soon found that lying there with the woman's scent, amber with a faint hint of ash, filling his nostrils with her warm hand running through his hair that he was much too comfortable to worry about anything at all. As the woman softly began to sing a song lost in the haze of his dream Shepard fell into blissful blackness and dreamt no more.

T_T Scene Change T_T

Shepard pried his eyes open as his Omni-tool Blared the most intrusive,loud, and annoying tune known to man in an attempt to wake him up. He reached out with his hand to slap the device in a futile attempt to silence it; as it blared on Shepard in his annoyance yelled. "Shut the hell up," only much to his surprise the Omni-tool went silent, as the code to deactivate the alarm was input he looked disbelievingly at his all in one device for a moment before deciding.

'I have a weird sense of humor.'

Shepard finally more or less awake tapped his Omni-tool to check the ship time. The clock read 0752 hours which meant that not only did Shepard sleep much longer than he intended to but also there was another 10 hours or so before the ship made the final approach on to Therum where Shepard's current best lead Liara T'Soni currently was.

Shepard stood and proceeded to unleash a back cracking stretch before he began to unsteadily walk toward his door while going over his dream in his mind.

'Been a while since I've dreamt something other than a nightmare,' he thought, 'but who was that woman?' Shepard asked himself, he couldn't recall anyone who fit the description especially not the whole on fire part of his dream.

Shepard came to a stop as a faint scent played along his nose, a faint scent of ash and amber, Shepard's sleep addled mind merely passed it off as a remnant of his dream as he activated his door and shambled out into the hall way making a semi steady line to the men's showers.

As he came up to the door of the men's showers he heard a door opening behind him, sluggishly turning around Shepard came face to face with what he would later admit was the glorious sight of Lilith coming out of the woman's showers, her damp hair loose flowing down almost to her waist and her clothes clinging to her still moist skin.

Currently however Shepard's sleep addled brain did not register the glorious sight before him instead he merely cast a sleepy "good morning" in Lilith's direction and trudged into the showers.

Leaving Lilith standing frozen in the hallway mouth gasping like a fish out of water due to one simple fact that Shepard in his half-awake state had overlooked.

Throughout Shepard's entire journey he was wearing nothing but his underwear.

o.0 O.O 0.o

POV Change

Lilith sat in a dark corner in the empty storage room behind the med bay blushing wildly while trying to calm her thoughts and failing miserably because no matter what she tried Lilith couldn't stop her thoughts from drifting back to Shepard … and his perfectly chiseled abs.

'GAHHHH, BAD LILITH WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU THINKING.' Lilith thought as she did her best to resist the urge to shove her head through the nearest solid object and desperately in need of a cold shower.

Despite what Lilith may have told it her brain was more than happy to ignore her and look over every perfectly defined detail of Shepard's body not only making her blush harder from embarrassment, also made the room uncomfortably warm.

Lilith ran her hand through her hair when trying to figure out why the hell this was happening to her, her mind drifted to the sappy romance novels that the other women in the N7 academy seemed so fond of.

'There's no way in hell its anything like that.'

Lilith venomously denied to herself as her mind ran through the ridiculous stories depicted in those corruptions of all that could be called literature. She would die before she ever admitted that she actually enjoyed reading those books.

Lilith suddenly had various romance scenes plastered all over her brain all of them involving Shepard, Lilith found she was unable to banish the incredibly sappy and cute scene suddenly filling her mind.

Lilith grabbed her head and screamed in the shear frustration at the confusion that Shepard had thrown her into.

But Before Lilith was able to do anything to relieve her frustration or embarrass herself further she felt a hand on her shoulder and her face darkened to a deeper shade of red as she found herself looking into the smiling face of Dr. Chakwas.

Lilith couldn't help but feel a cold sweat run down her back at the sight of the smile the older woman was wearing, that smile immediately had Lilith send a silent prayer to any deity that she had yet to kill or otherwise angered in hopes that they would save her.

Her prayers went unanswered as she was abandoned in the clutches of the she-demon wearing the face of a kind doctor.

o.0 O.O 0.o

POV Change

Scene Change

Shepard who now resembled a human being and not something out of an old zombie movie walked along the CIC heading to where his snarky pilot was sitting. He walked up behind the pilot sipping his daily caffeinated beverage and leaned on the back of the pilot's seat, "how far out are we Joker," he said.

This prompted the designated pilot of the Normandy to almost jump out of his seat and to begin yelling, "Damn it Shepard!" the pilot said before continuing in a lower and more controlled tone. "Wear a bell or something so you stop scaring the damn life out of me."

"Not his fault you don't pay attention Joker," quipped Kaiden, the lieutenant was seated in the co-pilot seat to the right of Joker.

To which the pilot immediately shot back, "And it's not my fault the man walks like a damn cat."

"That's enough children," said Shepard jokingly before directing his attention back to his pilot, "so how far out are we Joker?"

To which Jokerresponded, "Fine before you decided to go and give me a heart attack, first your damn ninja and now you." said Joker.

Shepard raised an eyebrow quizzically,"My ninja?"

"He's talking about our newest marine." provided Kaiden, "she's better at sneaking up on him than you are," continued Kaiden still not looking up from what he was working on.

Shepard who was somewhat notorious for walking quietly raised an eyebrow, "What did she want?"

"Same thing you did Shepard, she wanted to know how far out we are," said Jokerdismissively.

'Well I guess that makes sense,' thought Shepard.

"And,**"** continued joker in an extremely innocent tone that made Shepard immediately doubt said man's innocence, "she wanted to know if you always walk around in nothing but your underwear in the morning."

This caused Shepard to use all of his will to keep in line with the number one rule of dealing with Joker. 'Never let the crazy pilot see you face palm no matter how ridiculous the situation. Never give the pilot the satisfaction of seeing you face palm.'

"I need to get a shower in my room." Shepard said to himself after all he was well aware that he was about as far from coherent as he could get before he had his coffee in the morning.

Unfortunately for Shepard his pilot had sharp ears and said with an ear to ear grin, "You can't to that Shepard, think of our crew; if you get a private shower morale would plummet, especially your cute little ninja's."

Shepard barely resisted the urge to face palm again at the man's ridiculous statements Shepard settled for sighing. "Just don't call her little or a ninja while she's around or she'll slit your throat."

To which Jokerpromptly responded sarcastically, "Like that would prove me wrong."

Shepard sighed at the man's antics before saying, "Just give me a yell when we are two hours out Joker," before walking back toward the galaxy map.

But before Shepard was able to get out of ear shot joker called out to him, "You know if you're so bored I have some vids you can borrow."

Shepard well aware that what Joker would give him would most likely involve an Asari and a Hanar In compromising positions wisely said, "I'll pass," and began to make his way back toward the crew deck looking for something to do, after all he had the better part of a day to kill before it was time to suit up and hit Therum.

All the while he wondered how in the world he would look Lilith in the eye today let alone talking to her, secretly he hoped that he would not have to deal with her until the mission.

X_X Scene Change X_X

Shepard sent a silent curse at whatever higher entity that was currently watching knew it was out there and where ever it was it was laughing its metaphorical ass off as he stared resolutely at the flavorless meal that he had claimed as his own.

Shepard looked up from burning a hole through his defenseless rations with his eyes to glance at the certain blond haired red eyed N7 that by whatever coincidence was sitting across from him eating her own rations. All the while resolutely not looking at him though Shepard could see that she was slightly flushed and there was the smallest hint of red on top of her high cheek bones.

'Damn I must have really embarrassed her,' thought Shepard as he redirected his curses from unknown deities to his own strange half-awake behaviors.

Shepard mentally resolved himself he had to talk with the marine if to do nothing else but reassure her that he wasn't some kind of pervert and hopefully he could learn a little more about his new crew member as well. Clearing his throat he steeled himself to attempt one of the many things he was horrible at doing; dealing with women.

o.0 O.O 0.o

POV Change

Lilith sat in one of the several stiff borderline uncomfortable chairs surrounding the mess table with a plate of rations in front of her and did her absolute best to resist the urge to run away like a madwoman. The reason for her panic was the fact that her charge who had given her quite the eyeful not an hour ago before was calmly sitting across the mess table from her silently eating his own set of rations.

'By the abyss, what in the world am I supposed to do?' Lilith thought franticly, she has always had barely acceptable social skills after all she didn't remember a single thing about her time as a human and neither being locked up for nearly two decades in the undead asylum or fighting a one woman war against the gods, demons, and everything else stupid enough to fight against her and even the time she spent surviving in the slums of earth or in the military did little to nurture whatever social skills she possessed. This brought Lilith back to her current problem the fact that she had absolutely no idea how to deal with the man sitting at the table with her.

'I can't treat him as anything more than a commanding officer,' she thought. 'Shepard probably enjoys his position as "one of the boys" and would respond coldly to being treated differently,' even as she thought this she immediately ruled it out for a reason that she couldn't put her finger on, anything that would cause Shepard to give her the cold shoulder was unacceptable.

'I most definitely can't treat him the way I did when he was a kid,' she thought. Shepard most definitely was no longer a small child whose soft eyes often threatened to turn her into an undignified puddle of undead goo.

'Bloody hell!' thought Lilith, 'what the hell am I supposed to do?' As different scenarios ran though her mind and were rejected she came to the conclusion that running away would be the best option.

'I just have to finish the MREs so I have an excuse to escape,' she thought; but before Lilith could make her food magically disappear Shepard shot down her plan by clearing his throat in preparation to begin talking.

"So how are you doing today?" He asked in a desperate attempt at making conversation without seeming to pry.

"Fine," said Lilith mechanically as she began to eat her food as fast as she politely could to realize her escape plan.

Shepard paused momentarily at the cold response before barreling ahead anyway, "So where are you from Lilith?"

Lilith glanced up in surprise at the sudden divergence Shepard had taken in his questions but quickly looked elsewhere as not only did Shepard's blue eyes bore into her but also she couldn't help remembering the body that was attached to that set of eyes. She internally sighed as she shoved down the oh so delicious image of Shepard that she knew no matter what she did would be forever burned into her brain.

She then began to perfectly and mechanically recite her identity as far as the alliance was concerned at least when she was finished her food was nearly gone, and she decided to abandon ship before Shepard could ask any other questions. She stuffed what little was left of her rations into her mouth and then grabbed her plate, got up, and walked away to deposit her plate and to escape to the cargo bay. Leaving a confused Shepard sitting alone at the mess table suddenly alone, 'was it something I said?' Shepard thought to himself as the woman made her escape.

X_X Scene Change X_X

Shepard preformed his pre-combat rituals in the silence of his cabin; his mind was still as his body ran through the diagnostics on his armor and weapon systems and in the calm darkness of his room Shepard bottled up his doubts and fears. Shepard the human was not needed for his men to survive; they needed Shepard the commander and he would be damned before he failed to deliver.

* * *

AN: what you guys think good, bad, or ugly please drop a review and tell me


	4. Chapter 3

*Disclaimer: I disclaim ownership of anything from Mass Effect or Dark Souls which is property of their respective owners

AN: this is my first fanfic so it would me much appreciated if any criticism remained constructive

Many thanks to theluckyshot for being willing to work with a newbie like me and it him you should thank for this chapter being grammatically acceptable

That's all i have to say hope you enjoy the story

* * *

Chapter 4

Lilith POV

Lilith clutched the edge of her seat for dear life as the Mako bucked like a thing possessed as Shepard did his special brand of driving over Therum's rocky ground. Within the Mako was a full squad of specialists with Shepard in the driver's seat, Ashley next to him as his gunner and in the back compartment there was Lilith, Kaiden, Garrus and last but still taking up the most space was Wrex, though the scared battle master was the only one in the crew compartment enjoying the ride.

But throughout the whole ride Lilith couldn't help but keep her eyes nervously glued on the monitor in the Mako which was showing a feed from an outside camera.

_'That's a lot of __lava,__'_ she thought worriedly as she looked over the lakes of molten rock which Shepard maneuvered around with seemingly reckless abandon. She nervously glanced around as Shepard swerved horrendously close to a pool of lava.

Lilith really, really didn't want to end up in the lava she had been bathed in molten rock enough to last her a life time back in Lordran.

X Flash Back X

Lilith hunkered behind a fallen pillar as the giant abomination of living molten rock sent another wave of fire at the armored woman, but despite the creatures overwhelming strength it was slowly but surely being defeated by the much smaller undead. Already more than half of the creature's six eyes had fallen prey to Lilith's arrows and an absurd number of arrows were lodged within the rest of the creature. For all of the towering giants strength it couldn't kill what it couldn't catch and this small undead was very hard to catch and all the while the woman continued to pour her seemingly endless supply of arrows into the creatures flesh.

As the creatures life began to escape its grasp it slipped on the slick magma coating its feet and slammed against the ledge on which Lilith was taking cover, nearly crushing the woman in the process. Never one to waste an opportunity she threw aside her bow drew her sword and leapt onto the creatures face sinking the curved blade deep into one of the beasts remaining eyes.

The creature roared in anger and desperation pushing itself to its feet; however**,** the undead woman remained in place holding onto her blade for dear life. The creature clumsily dragged its tentacle limbs across its face attempting to remove the small undead being but the woman held fast sinking her blade deeper into the creature, ignoring the molten rock that wept from the wound which burned her flesh. Lilith finally finding a grip on the creatures face tore her blade from the creature's eye only to stab it over and over again, until her titanite reinforced blade finally struck something important within the obscenely large creature.

The massive creature gave one final keel underneath Lilith before she felt the monumental soul of the creature pouring into her;but any sense of victory she felt was short lived as the massive creature began to fall away from the earthen ledge that Lilith had been fighting it on tumbling into a massive lake of lava and taking her with it.

Lilith saw to world slow as the creature and she fell toward the massive lake of lava. In a move of utter desperation she ripped her blade out of the creature and launched herself off of the creature praying that somehow, someway she would reach the rock formations lining the lake of molten rock. The before mentioned rocks may as well have been a million miles away as the undead woman felt a desperate scream tear from her throat as she fell into the molten rock.

Later on the edge of the rapidly cooling lake of lava a body, little more than a blackened husk lay on a clump of cooled lava if anyone was watching they would likely be frozen in horror as the horribly burnt form moved slowly. Painfully dragging herself up the path that lead toward the pale lady andtoward healing and safety, it would be the longest climb of Lilith's life.

X Flash Back X

Lilith left her memories as Shepard drove over a particularly large rock causing gravity to momentarily abandon the unprepared undead as her bum left her seat and her head encountered the low roof of the Mako. As her head encountered hard metal she yelped in pain and clutched her head much to the amusement of the scarred Krogan sitting across from her.

She sent a halfhearted glare at said Krogan while rubbing the sore spot at the top of her head; however, her mind was still in Lordran. As Shepard enforced his 'break for no one' policy Lilith wondered and worried. She worried about the hand full of undead that she had come to call her friends that took up residence in fire link shrine.

How were they doing? Were they sittingabout worried about her, or worse searching the dark dangerous corners of Lordran in a desperate attempt to find her?

And more so what of the fair lady, the kind daughter of chaos who was Lilith's patron for the majority of her time since she left the undead asylum, what would she do now? The woman couldn't even see and Lilith had within her possession the only ring that would allow someone to speak her language. She wouldn't be in much danger not with the illusion in place and Eingyi the egg carrying pyromancer protecting her, but would she be lonely without a soul in the world she could talk to?

Lilith felt her guts wretch at the thought of the kind blind woman who had done so much for her feeling so alone as time passed with no one to talk to or interact with at all.

_'I'll go back to them_,' she thought resolutely, Lilith would complete her task here and go back to them no matter what the cost.

But to Lilith's vast surprise the thought of going back to Lordran, back to all the people she knew and away from Shepard brought to the surface a certain kind of sadness, a heaviness in her chest that was almost painful. As she tried to contemplate what in the world brought this feeling upon her the Mako rocked and a silver object that looked suspiciously like the leg of a Geth armature flashed past the camera screen before being ground to scrap beneath the Mako's wheels.

Lilith mentally grabbed the various thoughts and emotions floating around her mind and stuffed them into a box labeled 'later'.

Her mind now clear she grabbed onto her seat and held on for dear life as the Mako continued to buck like a thing possessed 'this is going to be a long ride' thought Lilith with a silent sigh.

X_X Scene Change X_X

After a long and occasionally insane ride Shepard brought the Mako to a stop below a set of bluffs and said over the radio, "the path narrows too much for the Mako we've got to go on foot to the excavation."

As soon as the ramp of the Mako dropped Garrus and Kaiden both tumbled out of the Mako and hugged the ground like it was their long lost lover and promised never to leave it again, Ashley staggered out of the Mako her eyes glazed over and a smile plastered on her face as she mumbled something along the lines of "Let's go again" while Lilith who despite not being prone to motion sickness was not immune to Shepard's special brand of driving held her stomach which was currently staging a rebellion and glared daggers at Shepard who responded with his crews antics by looking at Wrex with a smirk and asking, "is there something wrong with my driving?" The unaffected Krogan merely shrugged with a toothy grin on his face.

After Kaiden and Garrus had calmed down, Ashley had been called away from the light, and Lilith's stomach had been convinced to maintain relations with the rest of her, the team huddled to plan the advance forward into the gully that lead to Dr. T'Soni's excavation site.

Shepard eyed the gully; it was narrow and twisted there was no way they could get the jump on the enemy if they just went blindly into it. He looked around his mind working through various scenarios then his eyes fell on Lilith, the shortest and smallest member of his crew and an idea came to him.

Lilith who was at the moment making final checks to her armor, which was a variant of the N7 armor that Shepard himself wore; however, while Shepard's armor was a bulky and heavy with the trademark red strip down its right arm designed for maximum protection while still allowing a measure of mobility, Lilith's completely pitch black armor was designed to allow all the mobility and flexibility the wearer could desire while still giving a fair amount of protection. The result looked like a slimmer tighter fitting version of the heavy N7 armor that Shepard favored.

He walked toward her as she stretched apparently over whatever motion sickness the ride had caused, "Lilith can you get to the top of these bluffs?" He asked indicating one of the walls of the gully.

Lilith gave the wall a once over noting the jagged edges and numerous hand-holds, she looked at Shepard and nodded.

"Good get up there and scout it out, Garrus you're her buddy." Shepard ordered referring to the marine system of always working in pairs.

Unfortunately the concept's nickname flew straight over the Turian's head as he stood there for a moment looking strangely at Shepard before the spectre clarified, "you're her backup."

"Ah," responded the Turian in understanding before turning to follow the marine he had been paired with.

Lilith walked over to the wall of the gully with the Turian trailing behind her seeing that indeed there were numerous hand-holds but unfortunately for the 5'2 woman they were beyond her reach 'well,' she thought pensively looking at the wall, _'I'm going to need some __help._'

Lilith called over her shoulder to where Garrus was standing eyeing the wall skeptically, "hey, can you give me a boost,"

As the Turian walked up to Lilith she saw the look he was giving the wall so she reassured him, "when I get to the top I'll run some line down."

Garrus nodded, though he still looked skeptical before kneeling down and interlacing his fingers; Lilith stepped onto his hand and balanced herself as the Turian heaved her up. Lilith caught hold of a crack in the rock and dangled for a moment before heaving herself to another hand-hold, after repeating the process several more times Lilith stood on the top of the bluff looking down into the gully where Shepard and his team would advance.

_'One thing at a __time,_' she told herself.

She looked for a suitable rock and walked to it popping open a compartment in her armor; just one more thing technology had given the art of warfare, no longer did soldiers carry large cumbersome packs instead their armor was riddled with compartments for any and every kind of goody the soldiers heart may desire from rappelling wire to breaching explosives. If a solider needed it their armor had a place to hide it and if the solider forgot it chances were that their Omni-tool could synthesize whatever they need on the spot.

Lilith took a fairly thin but extremely strong wire out of the compartment and wrapped it around the before mentioned rock and spooling out an appropriate length down to her alien squad-mate so he could climb up.

It didn't take long for the Turian to clamber up the wire and get atop the bluffs and as soon as he did Lilith unwrapped the wire from the rock and coiled it back up to shove into the compartment from whence it came.

Lilith walked cat footed along the rocky bluff with her turian partner trailing behind her somewhat less sure footed then the undead woman, soon they came to a point where the gully widened. Lilith dropped onto her stomach signaling Garrus to do the same before she wormed forward to the edge of the gully ignoring the sharp edged rock digging into her armor.

Lilith found herself looking down into a small canyon where the path opened wide enough for a Mako to drive though it but the gully wasn't unoccupied down inside of it was a small group of Geth

_'Advanced __guards,_' she thought, _'they must be dug in __ahead_.'

Lilith scooted back away from the edge of the cliff rejoining Garrus before toggling her radio. "Shepard, you've got a couple of Geth a bit ahead of you." She said in a quiet voice, "looks like an advance guard we are going to head up further to check the rest of the path" Lilith said

Shepard replied with a terse, "roger."

Even before Shepard had finished speaking the two teammates were already moving, getting away from the edge of the gully and rising to a crouch before making their way further up the path searching for more enemies.

Lilith and Garrus soon found themselves looking into another area were the gully widened opening up to reveal a large opening with multiple levels and each was teeming with Geth

Lilith looked over the valley while keeping carefully out of sight. She could see what looked like two patrols and with one dug in position and two snipers in emplacements vaguely resembling guard towers.

Lilith radioed her findings to Shepard who after a moment of silence that Lilith assumed was Shepard thinking he gave her his orders. "See if you two can get behind those snipers but keep your head down, we are going to hit the first group of Geth."

"Roger." Lilith responded as she moved as quickly as possible, keeping her head down even as she heard gunfire echo down the canyon from were she had seen the advanced guards the Geth had placed.

Moments after they had shuffled into position prone on a bluff above and to the side of the snipers the two heard gunfire echo up the valley as Shepard and his team went to work. Lilith felt a small stab of worry about Shepard but dismissed it almost immediately when he contacted her over the comm.

"Were through the first patrol," he said in a calm emotionless voice. Then he ordered in the same commanding tone, "we're going to hit the Geth patrol on our signal take out those snipers."

"Copy," said Lilith as she hunkered down on the edge of the cliff she looked to her Turian squad mate who nodded to her before drawing his sniper rifle while she did the same. They both sighted the Geth below only to encounter a grievous problem; the sniper emplacements blocked their line of sight on one of the snipers.

Lilith let out a silent curse before whispering to her squad-mate. "I don't have a line of sight on the sniper keep your sights on your target; I'll get rid of the other one.

The Turian looked at her a moment before whispering back. "Be careful Shepard will rip me a new one if you die." The undead woman silently snorted at the irony of the statement before getting her feet underneath her and silently scuttling down the cliff and into the gully.

Lilith quietly crept up behind the first sniper, the Geth wasn't even aware of its surroundings it was merely looking down its scope toward where Shepard would be coming in moments, it didn't even consider the possibility of an attack from another angle instead completely focused on the single obvious entrance to the canyon.

Lilith was crouched not two steps from the unsuspecting sniper waiting for Shepard's signal to announce its death.

She didn't have to wait long.

As a double click came over the radio signaling the attack to begin it took Lilith all of 5 seconds to have a knife through the Geths neck, her dragon born blade slicing though the synthetic's armor and circuitry to sprout from the other side.

At the same time Garrus' gun barked sending a round though the other Geths head taking out its optics unit and almost completely destroying its head the machine promptly fell over and remained still.

A vicious grin grew on Lilith's face until she felt the Geth still moving trying to turn and face its unseen assailant, she then realized her mistake. She wasn't fighting a living thing no matter how similar to their creators they were the Geth were still machines and where a living thing has their wind pipe the Geth don't have anything particularly important.

Lilith quickly moved to rectify her mistake by reaching to her hip with her free hand and pulling out her pistol and in one swift motion she put its barrel to the machines head and pulled the trigger. The gun being physically against the Geth's head was far too close to it for its shield to deflect the shot. Instead the round punched straight through its head taking out whatever hardware was stored within.

With its head for all intents and purposes destroyed the unit ceased to function and hung limply off of Lilith's blade. Lilith felt a momentary rush of victory which she promptly squished down as more gunfire echoing around the canyon as Shepard engaged the Geth, the Geth were already on the ropes without the support of their snipers and under fire of an organized squad backed by biotics. Already out of the 8 Geth in the patrol 6 were down and Lilith saw a grenade sail through the air toward the cover the last two were hiding.

The blast demolished the last two Geth completely destroying one and blasting the second into a twisted pile of scrap metal.

After the battle had ended Shepard and the team came out of their positions and walked toward the ramp that would lead up to the second tier where Lilith was currently standing impatiently on one of the watch towers the Geth had set up, as Shepard approach Lilith discreetly looked him over searching for blood, armor breaches anything that could indicated that Shepard was injured.

Her examination was stopped when Garrus called over the radio. "Get down Lilith," with enough urgency in his voice for Lilith to throw herself onto the ground and just in time.

As she became much more intimate with the ground than she would have preferred a dozen rounds slipped though the air she was occupying seconds before.

Lilith scuttled on her stomach to the lip of the sniper emplacement, pushed her back against it, and drew her sniper rifle as four flashlights with guns advanced toward her tower.

She grit her teeth cursing herself for not paying attention and ducked lower behind the metal of her tower drawing her sniper rifle. When the fire lessened for a moment Lilith popped out of cover to fire a round though a Geth troopers head. Only to be reward by a renewed spray of gunfire from the fallen Geth's compatriots who forced the woman to once again duck behind cover or risk her shield failing under the barrage.

The machines started their advance attempting to flank the woman while keeping her pinned down with gunfire but their fixation on the undead woman would be their undoing.

As a flashlight head got into position to fire on the undead woman's flank a sniper round slammed into its head ending its existence and another geth was hit with a warp at the same time staggering it, the machine turned to face the source of its attack and the last thing it ever saw was a man in armor with a red strip down his arm holding a shotgun in front of its optic unit.

The remaining Geth units quickly shared the fate of their destroyed comrades as a flurry of biotics and gunfire slammed into it tearing them apart.

When the coast was clear Lilith leaned out of the structure she inhabited and said to Shepard. "Took you long enough," in the most sarcastic tone she could muster.

Only to have Shepard respond in exactly the same sarcastic tone, "well I'm not the one who let a bunch of walking flashlights sneak up on me."

Lilith who had no comeback to his joker worthy comment settled for giving him her patented 'GLARE OF DOOM' which Shepard much like Dr. Michel before him simply ignored and walked away from the red eyed woman much to her ire.

Leaving the woman to grumble about people becoming immune to her glare as Garrus scrabbled down from his perch and they made their way to the entrance to the Prothean ruin, as they approached the site Lilith ran her eyes over the area looking for anything that could indicate an ambush.

What she saw didn't please her in the slightest the area around the dig site was a virtual kill zone with nothing for cover but a couple supply crates which in her experience were far from sturdy, and to make matters worse to the left of the supply crates was a grouping of grain silo-like structures that could hide any manner of unpleasantness from view.

Lilith put her sniper rifle to her shoulder and drew her pistol in preparation for Geth to jump out of any conceivable location and open fire on them; unfortunately Lilith was looking in the wrong places, as a moment later Geth did in fact appear but not from some hidden crevasse or overlooked building instead a ship roared over the teams head depositing a Geth armature directly in front of the dig site with the obvious intent of keeping Shepard and his team out, and then as if to add insult to injury a pair of snipers and a Geth ghost also slammed into the ground.

"Cover!" Shepard yelled as the Geth thundered into the ground, his team all being trained and experienced in their own right didn't have to wait for him to call out orders. They were already charging toward the scattered cargo crates as he yelled.

The armature unfurled itself from its curled state and began firing its cannon at the various cargo crates which the team had by this time already hidden behind.

Shepard was bellowing orders into the radio as the Geth advanced on the team obviously aiming to flush them out for the armature to destroy.

"Garrus, Wrex get around those buildings and hit them from the side, Kaiden take down those snipers, Ashley you're with me we're going to get the armatures attention." Shepard leaned himself out of cover to assess the battlefield only to duck back as one of the Geth snipers took a unnervingly accurate attempt at giving him a high caliber facelift.

Taking the hint keep his head behind cover he spoke into the comm. "Lilith get rid of that damn ghost before it hits something important."

And with that the team knew what they would be doing and wasted no time going about their tasks; Shepard and Ashley blasted the armatures shields with their assault rifles, while they failed to do any significant damage they did however get the attention of every Geth on the field and while the synthetic's unleashed their attacks on Shepard's position his team ran toward their preset destinations.

The squad's two non-human team members covered the distance between the cargo containers and the silo-like buildings in seconds and then moved to flank the Geth who were still happily blasting away at the two soldiers.

At the same time Kaiden wasn't simply standing around with his thumb up his ass instead he was glowing neon blue as he unleashed a biotic lift causing a Geth sniper to float helplessly in the air for a moment before he followed up with a throw sending the machine flying off to places unknown.

Lilith herself was sitting in cover observing the battle or more specifically watching an annoying white blur of a Geth jumping around waiting for it to make a mistake.

She didn't have to wait long for the synthetic either confident in its speed or simply enjoying pissing off the organics began to make a show of jumping near one of the marines hitting them with an sabotage or other such annoyance then jumping away while their guns were unusable.

It didn't take long for it to set its sights on the marine staying behind cover a bit back from the battle seemingly not participating; the Geth jumped on top of the cargo container shielding Lilith and fired a sabotage down rendering her guns temporarily useless. Confident that the woman would not be able to harm it the synthetic crawled onto the side of the container preparing to jump towards its next target which was the pair of soldiers currently holding the armatures attention.

The synthetics life was suddenly cut short though when a foreign object entered its arm impaling it to the cargo container which it was sticking to like some demented spider as it then found out Lilith was far from harmless even without a gun.

The ghost looked down at its arm in the best equivalent to disbelief that a synthetic could accomplish as it saw a ordinate curved blade going right through its armor and its arm entirely. The synthetic looked up at the woman it had dismissed as not being a threat as she raised a still overheated pistol and smashed it into the machines optical unit then smashing it over and over into the unfortunate synthetic.

By the time Lilith finished renovating the ghost's head her gun was once again functioning. She took advantage of this and unleashed a dozen rounds into the Geth while thinking, 'and stay dead you squirrely bastard.'

Lilith's encounter with the Geth ghost had only taken about 15 seconds but quite a bit had happened in that time and not all of it was good. While the remaining synthetics except the armature had been destroyed by either gun fire or biotics the tank had apparently figured out that a stalemate would lead to its victory. After all it won as long as Shepard's team didn't make it into the dig site.

But this didn't at all mean it was idle, instead it simply occupied itself by standing in the middle of the clearing and sending round after round pounding into the cargo container protecting Shepard, slowly but surely destroying the organics cover.

Lilith looked on and prepared to do something crazy to get some attention when Shepard came over the radio. "Listen up I've got a plan."

Lilith stopped herself from the insanity she was about to attempt to listen to his plan. _'I'm sure Shepard has some great and perfectly sane plan to deal with this._' Lilith thought assuring herself.

Unfortunately for Lilith her expectations went unfulfilled as Shepard announced his plan "I need everyone to open fire and get this damn tanks attention so I can plant my grenades on it."

It was a perfectly acceptable but at the same time utterly insane plan; the first step was for the team to draw the armatures fire which was all good and jolly but the problem was that while they do that their commanding officer would run up to said pissed off tank, planning a bunch of grenades that may or may not have enough power to destroy the tank then run like hell.

Shepard however did not give anyone time to voice his or her doubts as he followed up saying, "on my signal engage the armature."

"Mark."

On his signal all hell broke loose as every member of the team began blasting away at the armature. High velocity rounds from sniper rifles, weaker rounds from assault rifles making up for their slower velocity with volume of fire and last but probably most damaging was biotics from Kaiden and Wrex; the machine now getting blasted from multiple sides wasn't sure whom to fire on first but after another salvo of warps hit it the tank turn to bring its cannon to bear on the teams biotic's.

As soon as it did Shepard sprinted from his cover half a dozen grenades in hand straight for it and while he couldn't match the speed of say Lilith while he was wearing his heavier armor and carrying a full load of weapons; his veins were pumping with adrenalin and he reached the armature in seconds and slapped the grenades onto the synthetic tanks underside where they automatically magnetized to the Geth remaining in place as Shepard turned around and ran.

Exactly five seconds from his encounter with it a spectacular explosion erupted from the synthetic's underside, tearing open its armor and spraying debris throughout the battlefield and causing the tank to fall over obviously having damage to some critical component as the light of its optical unit faded before the it settled on the ground and remained still.

The entire team stood weapons at the ready waiting for something spectacular to happen like a massive secondary explosion or the tank to reactivate but when nothing did they came out of their cover and regrouped with Shepard all the while admiring his handy work.

Ashley walked up looking at the hole blown in the underside of the Geth and said jokingly to Shepard. "Remind me to call you the next time the can opener doesn't work."

Shepard the image of efficiency just ignored the marine and quickly had the team checked over for injuries and heading into the dig site even before the adrenaline wore off.

Lilith looked down the dimly lit passage down into the dig site, _'Yup, not ominous at all_' thought Lilith as she followed Shepard's lead into the tunnel.

o.0 O.O 0.o

POV Change

Shepard looked over the tunnel leading into the dig sight and felt a cold tug in his gut as if the organ was trying to warn him not to go deeper into the tunnel but he squashed the feeling down and without thinking about it rubbed his left forearm where in a hidden compartment a mysterious pendent he had held since he was a boy was stored. No matter how good of a solider Shepard was he was only human and even if it wasn't true it helped him to think that there was something looking out for him, but as soon as he realized what he was doing he changed the movement into checking the seal on his wrist. No matter what he thought or felt his soldiers needed to see him as an unshakable pillar even if he wasn't. He couldn't let his men see his tell because if they saw that he was nervous they would also get nervous and a group of paranoid people with guns was never a good idea. So Shepard checked his perfectly fine wrist seal and sent a silent prayer to his angel to help him get his men out alive, it didn't matter if she was real or not the thought helped him and he needed all the help he could get, after all there was a group of soldiers who put their faith in him. Trusting him to lead them into what may as well be the bowels of hell and bring them back alive.

No pressure.

o.0 O.O 0.o

POV Change

Lilith and company piled into the bare elevator inside of the dig site which would take them down to where the scientists where hopefully located when Lilith felt a strange tingling on the back of her neck, _'__hmm,_' she thought, _'someone must be thinking bad thoughts about __me._' She paused in her mind as she ran over the list of likely suspects before deciding. _'I'm putting mustard in __Jokers__ coffee when I get __back._'

Her retribution for Jokers likely crime decided, she stood in the remarkably slow elevator waiting for it to descend deeper into the dig hopefully they would be to their destination soon, or at least before next week.

Suddenly as if caused by her thoughts the elevator began shaking, and bucking while it descended down the shaft faster as the emergency brakes screeched in an attempt to slow them but as they descended Lilith heard Shepard groan. "Not again."

As the elevator finally crashed into the ground the team picked themselves up and Lilith asked Shepard with wide eyes. "Happen often?"

To which Shepard just looked at her and said, "often enough to keep you on your toes." before turning and climbing out of the mangled elevator followed by his team.

As Lilith clambered out of the rubble she thought. _'Note to self, do not get on elevators with __Shepard_.'

The team walked away from the destroyed elevator and down a metal walkway when a somewhat distorted voice called out from one of the oval shaped holes in the Prothean structure.

Shepard walked over to the opening only to encounter a barrier blocking the entrance and an Asari floating in the air contained inside some kind of bubble.

But before Shepard or anyone else could say anything she yelled. "Can you hear me out there, I need help!"

Shepard quickly growled at the Asari. "Want to a yell a little louder, I don't think my pilot hear you."

The Asari either not hearing or not understanding the sarcasm dripping out of Shepard's words opened her mouth again only to quickly silenced when Shepard raise his hands and said in a quieter voice. "I was kidding, please be quiet," he paused for a moment as the Asari blinked at him then closed her mouth before he added, "are you Dr. T'Soni?"

The Asari seemed startled for a second before replying. "How do you know my name?"

Shepard cut off her question, "that's not important right now I need to know how to get you out" even though he had a multitude of questions for the Asari they would have to wait until the Doctor was extracted out of hostile territory.

"You need to find a way around the barrier; maybe you can find another entrance."

Shepard nodded at her assessment, "we'll look for an entrance," he began to turn away before stopping and saying with a hint of humor, "don't go anywhere," which prompting the rest of the team to groan at their commander's lame joke.

In response to their groans Shepard gave them a disbelieving look and questioned in a joking tone, "what?"

Lilith who was walking past Shepard with a ghost of a smile on her face said in a light tone, "Shepard, you're not funny so leave it."

He looked at her and put a big shit eating grin on his face. "You're right I'm hilarious."

Lilith openly face palmed, she couldn't help herself as Shepard walked along the cat walk with his team with a grin still on his face.

But what most of the team didn't really realize what that with his single lame joke Shepard had been able to provide the team with some levity. They were all still alert but at the same time they weren't too tense. That was the balance that all commanding officers needed to keep in their troops.

As they came off the cat walks they found themselves in a makeshift camp that the scientists must have set up and off to a side conveniently pointed toward the Prothean ruins was some kind of tunneling device that looked very large and very dangerous so naturally Shepard walked right up to it.

He looked over the panel seeing that it was connected to the device punched in a random sequence of buttons, and a spectacular hunk of nothing happened. So he tried another combination then another before Garrus who had been standing awkwardly behind Shepard as he continued to punch random buttons said, "I know a bit about electronics let me take a look."

Shepard glanced back at him for a moment before giving the panel a betrayed look and stepping back from it to let Garrus go in front of the panel and the Turian began to fiddle with the four button panel.

Lilith who had been standing off to the side of the tunneling instruments had lost her patience with the machine and began to wander into the impromptu camp the scientists had set up. As she wandered into the settlement leaving the team behind she didn't see anything of interest there were a few crates with random knickknacks in them and not much else.

Lilith dug through a random crate inside a scientist's tent, some might see scavenging from the dead to be wrong but her life had been saved countless times by her finding all manner of useful items that the dead held, and after all it's wasn't like they needed it anymore. She reached the bottom of the crate and huffed at the lack of anything worth paying attention to in the camp until she caught sight of the distinct shape of a weapons locker out of the corner of her eye.

_'Now what do we have __here?_' She thought making her way over to the corner where the locker was tucked away.

Lilith at first simply pressed the button to open the locker to find that it was… locked, it was expected, but to Lilith who couldn't hack her way out of a paper bag it was frustrating.

She was quite aware that she had a snow ball's chance in hell of hacking the locker though she tried anyway… only to fail. The outcome was not taken well; she tried again and again to hack the terminal she even attempted to pry it open or to cut into the locker all to no avail. Eventually the woman turned her back on the locker which she was sure was secretly laughing at her but as she did she rounded on it and kicked the locker with all her might. Now to understand what happened next one has to understand that Lilith's boots while armored to stop outside damage did not stop her toes from colliding with the inside of the boot which as was mentioned earlier was armored and a great deal more sturdy than her toes.

After she had finished her 'I stubbed my toe' dance, Lilith who was now thoroughly regretting her relationship with the weapons locker walked back toward the mining laser.

'_This thing better work soon or I'm stabbing __someone_.' She thought determinately.

Luckily for everyone involved with the laser Kaiden had managed to figure out the wiring problem within the panel and got it back into working order.

By the time that Lilith had joined the crowd of people standing around the control panel Shepard was punching codes in at random into the panel a few attempts later he put in the correct code and the laser fired doing exactly what it was designed to do clearing the rocks away and revealing an entrance into the Prothean structure.

As the crew looked into the hole Lilith couldn't help but ask, "If it was that easy what took so long?"

"Less making fun of me more walking," said Shepard refusing to humor her.

Lilith simply replied by grumbling something that sounded suspiciously like, "commanding officer's have no sense of humor."

The team walked into the structure within and assembled in a somewhat orderly fashion on the platform that looked a lot like an elevator.

Shepard made a beeline for something that looked like a control panel and Lilith trailed behind him.

He looked at the panel for a second before pushing a button almost at random which turned out to be the correct button because when he hit it the elevator immediately began to rise.

As it rose Lilith looked at the panel. "Good job Shepard you found the up button and in under ten minutes," she said with a smirk.

Shepard sent a mock scowl at her and huffed, "At least I can open a locker without resorting to violence."

Lilith looked at Shepard embarrassed that he saw her small spaz attack that she had unleashed on the locker and she asked, "what, how, when."

Shepard looked at her with a smile that under other circumstances may have made her blush crimson for something other than embarrassment and waggled his eyebrows saying.

"I have my evil ways," dragging out the last syllable ominously.

Lilith was still standing staring at him as he turned around and walked toward the immobilized Dr. T'Soni she hadn't even noticed they had reached the level where the Asari was.

As Shepard went to speak with the naïve Asari Lilith mentally took a few steps back and hit herself with a mental two by four all the while yelling in her head.

_'Every time! Every single time I tell myself I'll be ready for him and the bloody mad man still surprises me!_'

The whole time Lilith was having her mental spaz attack a corner of her mind currently not involved in metaphorical self-mutilation wondered how Shepard always made her emotions act as if they were riding a bucking gargoyle seemingly without trying.

Eventually something did happen that got Lilith's attention, it wasn't anything big just the mountain they were in decided that this would be a good time to erupt.

As the entire structure began to shake Shepard ran back to the panel of the elevator activating it. She didn't know what he had said to the Asari doctor but the alien quietly trailed behind him.

As the team milled around on the upward moving elevator the entire world seemed to shake.

"The hell is going on?" yelled Kaiden over the ground rumbling. "Are the Geth bombing us?"

T'Soni answered in the same loud tone, "The laser must have triggered a seismic event."

"Nothing's changed we just have to get out of here," Shepard interrupted.

As the elevator continued its journey upward Shepard activated his com and radioed the Normandy.

"Joker lock onto our location and get your sarcastic ass down here, double time it mister."

"Roger, o captain my captain," came jokers cheeky reply before adding, "ETA five minutes."

This caused Lilith to grumble, "If we die I'm having Wrex piss in his coffee."

Wrex snorted before grumbling in turn, "If I die down here I'm going to do a lot more than piss in his coffee."

The elevator rose at a fair pace but it wasn't fast enough for Lilith, she wanted out and she wanted out now. After all it didn't take a genius to figure out an erupting volcano involved lava and she had more than enough encounters with lava to last a lifetime.

It didn't take long for the elevator to reach the top putting Shepard and his team straight into a whole other problem.

Strutting towards Shepard and his team was a Krogan accompanied by four Geth.

"Crap," muttered Lilith as she looked around taking in the situation.

What she saw could have been better, the elevator they were on provided no cover not to mention that by the looks of the room the Geth could easily surround them on the high ground. The situation wasn't all bad though for one the Geth were still crowded around the Krogan not moving to surround the team also Dr. T'Soni was behind the team with a barrier of armored soldiers between her and the hostiles.

As Lilith finished her take on the situation the Krogan who was apparently the leader of the Geth rumbled. "Give us the Asari and surrender" he paused for a moment in contemplation and with a shrug said, "or don't that would be more fun"

Shepard apparently having heard enough of the blowhard said. "We don't have time for this idiot, someone secure the VIP, the rest of you Charge!"

On Shepard's order the team scrabbled forward with him and Wrex leading the pack shotguns out, while Lilith hung back grabbing Dr. T'Soni and dragging her to the side so she wouldn't get hit by stray shots.

The fight was over in moments; a combined barrage of biotics, tech, and good old fashion gunfire quickly reduced the Geth to sparking piles of scrap. The Krogan however had a few tricks up its sleeve. As his shields faltered and bullets began to pepper its flesh it caught sight of its target, an Asari standing off to the side of the battle with a single human woman guarding her. The krogan roared and activated a biotic barrier and charged at the Asari and Lilith.

Lilith saw and heard the Krogan rumbling toward her and the Dr. its newly erected barrier was faltering fast as the entire team poured fire on it. But not fast enough as it bowled through Garrus and kept coming.

Lilith raised her pistol and added her own fire to the barrage hitting the battle master even as she drew her knife in her off hand and prepared to play matador, after all she had brought down bigger bulls in the past.

The Krogan was now mere steps away from Lilith who had positioned herself in front of the Asari, when suddenly a shot cracked out loader than the rest of the rounds screaming at the Krogan. The Battle masters knee exploded as a sniper round passed though it courtesy of a particular Turian sniper. The Krogan began to topple its knee destroyed and the multitude of rounds biting into it finally taking their toll but before the stubborn being relinquished its life it performed a final act of defiance in the form of a blue biotic ball rushing toward the blond woman before it.

Long practice immediately kicked in unfortunately for Lilith it was the completely wrong reaction. During Lilith's time in Lordran her black knight shield had been her best friend and lover, she slept with it, bathed with it, and killed with it, her shield had saved her life more times then she could count and it wasn't long till raising her shield became a instinctual response to anything and everything. Unfortunately for the undead woman she did not have her shield at this point in time and raising her arm did nothing to ward off the biotic throw that crashed into her.

Lilith was momentarily disorientated by the massive change in perspective as the biotics lifted her off of her feet and sent her flying through the air. Long practice in being tossed around like a rag doll saw Lilith tucking her legs in an attempt to cut her tumble short but her efforts were for naught as she crashed into the Prothean built wall of the ruin sending her breath out of her body, before she crashed to the ground face first adding insult to injury.

"Stupid damn biotics," she grumbled as she hauled herself to her feet feeling pain lace through her back and side. "Yup, that's gonna bruise."

The ruin let out another rumble as the earth began to shake more violently, which prompted Shepard to take control of the situation. "Everybody out, move!" He said waving his hand at the entrance the Krogan and its pet Geth had used. His team didn't need to be told twice as they began to run toward the entrance Dr. T'soni in tow as Lilith staggered after them still disorientated by her quick flight courtesy of biotic airways.

Shepard ran over, grabbed her by the arm, and pulled her along, following after the team.

It didn't take long before Lilith got her feet back under her and began sprinting toward the entrance alongside him.

As they ran rock crashed down all around and blistering hot air spewed from the earth but still they ran seeking to get the hell out of the underground death trap.

In moments they were in the long straight tunnel which lead to the entrance; they could see the team storm out into the air of Therum in front of them and they ran toward the light for all that they were worth.

'Joker better damn well be there!' screamed Lilith in her mind as she ran toward open air and couldn't help but imagine lava licking at her heels.

X Scene Change X

Lilith sighed as she wringed out the last of the water in her hair, she wished she could have spent longer in the shower simply standing there letting the hot water pour over her body washing away her stress and exhaustion, but that wasn't an option. After all in spaceships water is a precious commodity so the showers were programmed to shut off exactly eight minutes after they were turned on and they were coded so the same person couldn't activate them within an hour period much to the woe of the undead woman

She sighed depressed at the fact that no matter how much she wanted to get the long luxurious bath she desired that it wouldn't happen anytime in the foreseeable future. Lilith activated her Omni-tool the little water proof device lit up showing her the time.

_'Ten minutes till debriefing, I better head up now,_' the thought went through her mind as she quickly dressed winching as her movements aggravated the dark splotches sprouting on her side.

She glowered at the growing bruises; at one point in time Lilith had thought that since the gods marked emblazoned on her hip gave her a constant supply of Estus that she was as good as immortal. She had found out that she was still far from immortal the hard way, as it would turn out while she did indeed receive a constant supply of Estus from the mark the actual amount received was minuscule at best. Though the supply was enough to make sure she didn't hollow her healing while much better than an unaided human couldn't even compare with say a Krogan, and as such Lilith would be sporting dark bruises for a day or two from the Krogan battle masters parting gift.

Lilith sighed again as she rested her head against the cold metal wall of the ship and thought that she had been sighing a whole lot lately; then again she'd been thinking a whole lot lately.

But more than anything else she knew that Shepard was having an effect on her and she didn't know if it was for better or for worse but she could already feel the man's pull. She knew Shepard was like a star; you couldn't even be near him without him affecting you.

Lilith closed her eyes her head to the cold metal but she could still see him with his piercing blue eyes and that smirk that crawled its way onto his face when he wasn't paying attention.

She sighed again as she opened her eyes and willed away images of Shepard glancing at her Omni-tool again. '_Five minutes till debriefing time to go face the man himself_,' she thought before picking herself up and mentally dusting herself off.

'_You've dealt with things that would drive any normal person to the depths of insanity so you should have no problem dealing with a man,_' thought Lilith decisively, before adding with a hint of hesitation '_right?_'

* * *

To all the readers who wish to see Shepard have his time in the spotlight rest assured that in the chapters to come Shepard will have more screen time and more awesome moments.

till then please review and tell me what you think and what you believe should be worked on


	5. Chapter 4

So here is this chapter... again, it had to be re uploaded due to technical difficulties which resulted in a utterly wtfed version of this chapter to get posted, as was so kindly pointed out by a certain Asian tsundere reader of mine.

so once more i disclaim all ownership of the mass effect and darksouls they belong to their respective owners.

* * *

Shepard staggered through the silent ship and into his quarters before plopping down tiredly onto his bed. It had been a horrendously long day for the marine and it showed; he had rings under his eyes and could barely keep them open as he lay on his bed, which normally seemed carved out of stone, but now felt like the softest most inviting bed ever made.

Shepard closed his eyes and silently reflected on what had made his day so utterly horrid. For starters, any day when he and his team were out in the field dodging bullets was not a good day in his book, but that hadn't been the only thing he had to deal with; in fact, it had been far from it. For starters, one of his crew had gotten injured, namely Lilith one of the new arrivals. You might say that it wasn't anything serious according to Chakwas after she had examined the marine. There were no particularly damaging injuries; in fact there was nothing except for some rather nasty bruising from when she had hit **a** wall, which was something Shepard could count himself lucky for, he knew how hard a biotic—especially a desperate biotic—could hit.

All in all he had counted the mission as a success, the Geth were destroyed, the VIP was extracted and had given up any Intel that she had, which honestly wasn't a damn thing. However, there was one tiny little smudge on the mission, but it just so happened that this smudge was a couple million credit tank.

Yup, Shepard's team had not been able to recover the Mako namely because they were too busy trying to get out of the exploding volcano that Shepard will forever deny was his fault.

The end result however could be worse, Shepard would much rather have lost the tank then lose a team member to the molten lava, and besides that Shepard had called Anderson to ask him to pull a few favors and get the Normandy a new Mako as fast as possible. Anderson had agreed, but Shepard suspected that the next time they met the admiral would have some choice words for him, not to mention that drinks would be on Shepard till the end of his days.

Shepard felt the idle thoughts drifting away as the bed pulled him deeper into its grasp. He closed his eyes and began to drift into blissful slumber, assuring himself that the paperwork could be put off till tomorrow.

o.0.O.O.0.o

pov change

At the same time Lilith crept like a thief in the night about the cargo bay. She had made rounds over the entire oppressively dark room checking that she was indeed alone. Not that she had expected anyone to actually be in the bay, seeing as it was essentially midnight on the ship, but it never hurt to be too careful, especially considering what she was planning to do.

When Lilith's examination was complete, she made her way to her personal locker. Each person on the Normandy was assigned a locker, small footlockers for miscellaneous personal items and larger secured lockers for combat personnel. Lilith's locker was of the later kind. The larger lockers had two compartments, one for weapons and armor, and another for whatever else a solider may need. Most lockers where filed with trinkets, mementos, and other such items, but Lilith had chosen to put something else in her locker. When her locker opened, she knelt down to the lowest compartment and pulled out a nondescript wooden box that was about a foot tall and two long.

Anyone who saw the simple looking box would think that it was a container for trinkets or some kind of memento box, but this particular box was much more complex than that. After all, this box was the mysterious bottomless box purchased from a certain merchant in Lordran. True to its name, Lilith had never managed to actually fill the box, no matter what manner of nonsense she stuffed into it. From giant swords and hammers to the occasional trophy taken from an enemy's corpse, there wasn't a thing that Lilith could carry that she hadn't stuffed into the box at one time or another.

So naturally anything and everything that she found of any interest around Lordran would sooner or later be shoved into the box. From a pile of humanity that she had managed to amass in her travels to the odd weapon or gauntlet along with her store of arrows. No matter what anyone said she only carried as many arrows as she needed, and a few hundred spares… just in case.

Yes Lilith was quite aware that she was a pack rat, and no she didn't care.

She laid the box down on the Normandy's deck and pressed a hidden switch on its side that released the latch on the lid, which she promptly opened to reveal all of her treasures within it.

Lilith feeling a tingle of warning creep up her spine, she looked up from the nondescript box, glanced over her shoulder, and scanned her eyes over the cargo bay again only to see nothing moving.

She frowned as she turned back to her box, her instincts must be slipping after spending so much time around people who were not attempting to kill her, it was not unexpected, but that didn't make it any less disturbing, after all those same instincts had saved her from taking a sword in the back more times then she cared to remember.

She looked back at the box and began to peer down into it, trying to see past the piles of possessions for what she was currently looking for. Not sighting her quarry, she began to shuffle though the sheathed weapons and bundles of arrows, but Lilith still did not find the small pouch that she was seeking. She leaned forward, digging deeper into the box. Soon her arms were fully submerged into the box that by all accounts was too small to accommodate her arms in such a manner.

A few minutes later, Lilith was still digging and now silently cursing herself for her unfortunate habit of picking up anything and everything that looked remotely useful, or odd, or just lying around period. By now she was searching by feel and also in danger of bodily falling into the box, with her head torso and arms completely within the box when she finally found her quarry. Out of her piles of weapons, armor, and random junk, Lilith pulled out a small non-descript pouch.

The undead extracted herself from her box of shenanigans with her prize in hand. She stood up and stretched before closing the bottomless box and placing it back into her locker from whence it came. With the box once more within the locker she pulled out her sheathed knife.

She took one last look around the cargo bay running her eyes over the shadows once more. She saw nothing, thus assured she returned her attention to the task at hand. Lilith plopped herself cross legged on the floor, wincing as she jostled her still bruised side and removed the dragon born blade from its sheath. The blade had seen better days, it was splotched from being sheathed without having the fluid from the slain Geth wiped from it, as well as several dings and dents along the blade from becoming intimately familiar with before mentioned Geth.

Lilith slowly ran her hands along the blade, exploring it as one might do with a lover; the comparison might be quite true seeing what she and her weapons had been through; she may not use every blade within the vast arsenal she had squirreled away in her nonsensical box, but the ones that she did use she knew. Every curve, every stain, every dent she knew them by heart she knew where that had come from, mostly because she usually had a scar to accompany each dent, crack, and stain.

Lilith sighed at the condition of her blade and murmured quietly to it, "I'm sorry I put you through that, I will take better care of you from now on." With that promise in mind the undead opened the pouch she had taken from her bottomless box. She dipped two fingers into the pouch and withdrew them, coated in a glittering gold powder.

Lilith drew her fingers in front of her face examining them closely making sure that enough of the repair powder had stuck to her fingers, back in lordran when she could easily purchase more powder she would simply dump out the entire pouch on her blade. However, she truly had no idea of how the powder was made or where it came from, and that was one of the reasons that she had to strictly ration it, when she ran out she had no way to make more.

She proceeded to gently rub the powder into the dragon born blade; the blade began to shine with a soft golden sheen as the powder did its work. Within moments, the glow faded leaving the blade rejuvenated.

Lilith ran her hand over the repaired blade, it was as sharp, and beautiful as the day she had received it. Lilith smiled at the rejuvenated blade before she stood up and proceeded to scurry about hiding the evidence of the repair; the pouch was resealed and placed within her fanciful box, which was subsequently shoved back into her locker along with her sheathed knife.

Lilith sealed her locker, and stretched working the cricks out of her back while walking toward the elevator. She punched the button for the crew deck, 'I think I'll grab some shut eye,' she thought as the elevator carried her to the crew deck. 'It's not like I have anything better to do.'

o.0 O.O 0.o

POV Change

(A few minutes earlier)

Kaiden wandered out of the engine room quietly cursing the blasted console that had become the bane of his existence. The console in question normally was ignored but the damn thing was simply bothering him, he couldn't even be near it without his teeth going on edge and a uncomfortable tingle wandering among his implants.

Initially he simply thought a quick session of maintenance would have the problem taken care of, but instead he found the aggravation had increased after he fixed everything that could be conceivably wrong with the consoleand now it was simply a challenge. It was as if the console was mocking him as it ignored his every effort to repair it.

He had come down to the engineering deck to see if Adams had any clue what was wrong with it, but just his luck in its true form, Adams did not share his insomniac pursuits and was fast asleep in a sleeping pod, and the night shift engineer whose name always escaped Kaiden didn't have the slightest clue what was wrong but did say that he would leave a message for Adams.

In the end Kaiden was once more left with the prospect of not having a night of sleep and dealing with the console simply sitting there mocking him for another day. The prospect caused him to quietly murmur a litany of curses at the console as he walked into the darkened cargo bay only to be stopped in his tracks by the sight in front of him.

In front of him, illuminated by the dim lights of the cargo bay, were the shapely hindquarters of a woman sticking into the air. This however was not what shocked Kaiden, what shocked him was where the rest of her was, namely the fact that the woman was from the waist up inside of a box which, by whatever logical analysis was too small to accommodate her height.

Kaiden blinked a few times and continued to stare, 'I know,' he thought reassuringly to himself. 'I must have a migraine, and its making me hallucinate,' of course that was negating the fact that he didn't feel like he had a headache and that a migraine had never made him hallucinate before, but if he tried hard enough he could convince himself.

His delusions were cut short when he heard a smothered sound that sounded vaguely like a cry of victory reached his ears. He returned his eyes back to the woman and her box to see her pulling herself from the before mentioned box. He saw the woman who he could now identify as Lilith, the newest human member of the Normandy's crew.

Kaiden's mind, which was still attempting to overcome the combination of a lack of sleep and frustration, coupled with trying to process the shenanigan that was Lilith's bottomless box. His mind had frozen when she extracted herself from the box. He really should have made himself known rather than simply skulk in the shadows like he was, but his mind was still processing the shenanigans of her mystical box, so in the end he stood staring like a slack jawed idiot as she pulled herself from the box and began to look about almost like she could feel his stare on her.

He couldn't help but stiffen as her eerie red eyes came upon him; he couldn't help but notice that with their vivid shade of red that they seemed to glow, Kaiden honestly admitted he had not paid much attention to the newest human member of the crew. Though he really couldn't really be blamed for it, after all the Normandy had been a bundle of excitement recently, after all. In the span of a week it had gained four new crew members that were a great deal more exotic then the human N7. Kaiden looked her over and thought about a great deal of things at once. He had read over her profile and seen the records of her exploits, but he knew next to nothing about her aside from that. Although he would have to admit, she looked a great deal less imposing then her file would suggest, after all the nickname 'butcher of Tofran' conjured images of a blood thirsty six foot tall Amazon with a body like a tree trunk**.** Lilith did not even come close to that image. To begin with, the woman was probably five foot three if she stood on her toes with an athletic body. Her face did little to add to her ability to intimidate; her facial features were too far on the delicate side to accomplish that. She would never be a model that much was certain, her jaw was a bit too strong, her nose a bit too wide, and her lips a bit too thin; all culminating into a set of features that, while doubtlessly far from ugly, fell short of the kind of perfection that would be considered the ideal woman.

Kaiden shook his head, 'the hell am I thinking,' he mused, 'the lack of sleep must be getting to me.' After all, he was certainly someone who had more common sense then to be lurking in the shadows, eyeing a woman who likely could kill him with a butter knife, biotics or not.

Kaiden was shaken free of his thoughts when she moved, going from quietly sitting cross-legged on the floor, doing who knows what, to quickly and efficiently putting away the items she had arranged around her. First to disappear was a small pouch whose nature hecouldn't discern, was placed into the box that he had seen Lilith half buried in when he first entered the bay, which itself was quickly sealed and returned to her locker followed by her knife, then her locker itself was closed.

Then she got up, and without another glance around she strutted toward the direction of the elevator.

Kaiden watched her go, then stopped and thought, 'did I really just skulk in the shadows staring at her like I've never seen a woman before?' He put a hand against his head and once more cursed the panel that was the bane of his existence and made his own way to the elevator. He was going to sleep; when he woke up he would deal with the panel, preferably by shooting it out the airlock.

o.0 O.O 0.o

POV Change

(AGAIN shocking isn't it)

"Just breathe," she told herself trying to calm her screaming nerves and stampeding heart, "just breathe," she quietly repeated clinging to the mantra as if it would save her from her fears. She let out a long breath and opened her eyes to the darkness that permeated the interior of the sleeping pod she inhabited.

Some rational part of her mind calmly informed her that she was safe inside the Normandy; she would even be comfortable inside the padded pod if her skin would stop trying to get up and run away. However, another part of her was screaming at top of its lung for her to escape to get out of this tight space where she couldn't move. She ignored both of them and instead just stared into the gloom, it wasn't really the darkness that bothered her, or the immobility. The undead knew that with just one push of a button, the pod would pop open and she would be free to move about, but some part of her still cringed at just the sight of the pods. There was something about them. Maybe it was the way she fit inside of it or maybe the way it looked disturbingly similar to a coffin.

Whatever the reason, whenever she was within one of the pods, she couldn't help but feel buried memories crawl up her spine; memories of fear, pain, madness, and impenetrable darkness.

Memories from the Tomb of the Giants.

X Flash Back X

When Lilith descended into the darkness of Nitos' realm, she was a bloodied warrior having struck down Executioner Smough, and Dragon Slayer Orenstein, and became an even mightier pyromancer than she already was under the tutelage of Queelana, and she had been declared the chosen undead and was bequeathed the lord vessel. Striding into the ancient tombs she believed that she would be ready for whatever lied in the dark, she was wrong.

She found herself tested, driven to the edge of her limits in the darkness. The creak of **an** ancient bone or the wheeze of a blade sailing at her head would be her only warning of the skeletons that struck from the dark. Never the less she persevered, her shield and her body gaining a few more scars, but she survived and continued to press forward even as the darkness crept closer. But, the darkness didn't truly take hold of her; neither did it truly engulf her. Not until she met Patches.

Lilith didn't like Patches at all. Even when she had first laid eyes on him, the man reminded her of some kind of scavenger as he raked his eyes over her from head to toe, not that her wanderer's armor allowed much to be seen, but he did it never the less.

"Why hello there," he said with a crooked smile, after he had finished burning her form into his eyes.

Lilith for her part simply glowered at the man from underneath her hood, 'this man reminds me far too much of Lautrec,'' she thought before immediately banishing that name and the emotions the swelled alongside it with it. Lautrec was the last person she wished to think about, those wounds where still too fresh for her to prod at them.

She kept her mouth pressed into a thin line, her sword in its sheath, and her shield on her back as she tried to bore a hole in Patches head with her eyes. Just because she got a bad feeling about the man didn't mean she was going to attack him without a half decent reason.

Patches was not the least bit put off by her standoffish stance and just kept talking. "What are you doing in the catacombs, are you a cleric or something?" his smile never faded even when he all but spat the word cleric.

The woman seeing no reason to lie shook her head no. She was many things, but a cleric wasn't one of them.

"Ah, good," drawled Patches. "I don't like those holier than thou clerics, then again who does?!" He let out a rumbling laugh before leaning toward her as if to whisper a secret to her and said, "I'll share a secret with you. There is a batch of treasure down this hole don't we share it?" He finished, flashing Lilith a scoundrel's smile, which he no doubt thought was charming. It did nothing other than set Lilith more on edge. She had seen that smile before on the knight of Carims' face and on the man who had committed a betrayal most foul against her.

Nevertheless the undead couldn't just pass up a chance to get her hands on some goodies, after all things she had found on her journey had saved her life many times. Lilith walked forward keeping an eye on Patches out of the corner of her eye and walked to the edge of the cliff.

She peered down into the darkness, and looked around for the treasure, but only saw what may have been a couple of objects lying scattered on a landing below her. She didn't look for long, but a couple of seconds after she reached the edge of the cliff. Patches made his move. She saw him move in her peripheral vision but it was already too late. She tried to turn, yanking at her sword as she did. Her effort earned her nothing but the wooden butt of a spear smashing against the side of her head. Lilith saw sparks explode in front of her eyes as the blow landed.

Patches did not allow her to recover. While she was still reeling from the blow to the head, he planted his boot into her gut and kicked her off the cliff.

However, he made a bit of a miscalculation as he kicked her. He had put too much force into the kick which, coupled with the fact that her attempt to turn on him had resulted in him getting the angle wrong. Instead of kicking her onto the nice clearing where he could strip her corpse of its loot, he had kicked her out over the clearing and deeper into the pit. However, true to his reputation of a hyena, he felt nothing more than momentary pang of sadness at the loss of whatever goodies the woman may have been carrying before returning to his post at the cliff face. Some other sucker would come along sooner or later and he would be more careful then.

X Scene Change X

Deep within the endless darkness a figure lay, broken. Its limbs where twisted at wretched angles and blood leaked out of numerous injuries incurred during its fall and subsequent landing. Yet, it still lived. Down in the pit, the wretched figure opened its blood red eyes and screamed, not a scream of anger or hatred, but a wretched animal shriek of pain and fear. Soon the figure fell into silence and simply lie still, and so, in the endless darkness of the tomb of the giants lays the chosen undead. Broken and forgotten, her red eyes wide and darting, searching for something, anything she could do to save herself. Her eyes met only impenetrable darkness, so she lay in the darkness with nothing but pain, and her thoughts to keep her company.

X Scene Changed X

Time passed meaninglessly within the endless dark that was the Tomb of the Giants. Red eyes once bright now lay dull and staring at the endless gloom.

She had searched in the brief moments her mind was aflame with pain for a way to escape, but to no avail. Her equipment was scattered, her sword was still faithfully on her hip, but her flask was nowhere to be found.

She could feel it; in darkened corners of her mind it festered and grew. Her mind once whole and sharp had turned on itself in the darkness. Slowly ever so slowly, pieces of her mind where drifting away lost to the madness that grew there, but the undead didn't least now the voices of the dead kept her company.

Time passed.

The chosen undead lay in the place she had fallen, her body still broken but her mind now changed. Darkness had taken root and grown like some demented weed, within, the woman who called herself Lilith had shrunk and hid herself, running from the pain and the solitude of the darkness and in her place something else rose up.

This new thing was not as fragile as Lilith was; it did not feel fear as Lilith did, it was a creature of anger and hunger. While Lilith was a warrior, this new thing was nothing of the sort. It was a rabid beast, hungering for the death of its enemies, to breathe a moment longer,and nothing more.

The beast opened its red eyes and scanned the platform; it forced its broken limbs to move. It thought nothing of the pain which had paralyzed Lilith, instead taking an impartial observation of its surroundings. It could not stay on the ledge, there were no enemy's to rend, nothing for it to hunt. No reason for the beast to exist on the ledge, so it would leave.

The beast's mind moved with a patience which, only the mad and the dead should possess, as it considered its options. Its Estus flask was lost perhaps further over the ledge; perhaps it had fallen further into the darkness. To its mind it was a simple choice, its broken limbs could not climb higher and there was a chance that the flask was below. With a push from a single, almost whole arm, the beast sent its body tumbling over the ledge into the blackness.

Pain shot through the beast's limbs as it slid down the angled slope but it paid no mind, instead it waited with inhuman patience for her body's journey to come to an end. It did not have to wait long. Soon the beast's body rolled onto a flat ledge much larger than the one it previously laid on.

The beast lay still for a moment, taking stock of the new state of its body. Before its insane journey, the beast's legs had been broken, one arm had been mangled beyond recognition, and the other had suffered a fracture, but still had some manner of usefulness. Now her body was in even worse shape, but not by much. One of its legs was now completely turned around, her toes pointing in the wrong direction, and the beast suspected that it had broken whatever ribs that had survived the first fall. It was good enough.

The beast moved, looking about itself and ignoring the pain screaming through its body. It didn't take long for the beast's red eye to find its prize, the dull green sheen of an Estus flask. A toothy smile spread on its face as it dragged itself to the flask, broken limbs, and all. It would survive yet.

X Scene Change X

Patches was annoyed to say the least. He shouldn't have kicked that woman straight off the cliff after all. She had been the last person that he had seen for a while and he still didn't have enough loot to risk fighting his way out of the tomb.

He was sitting in his usual spot leaning against his spear, and he couldn't help but notice that he had stood there long enough to leave permanent impressions in the stone. Patches let his mind drift as he listened for his next victim; he would always hear them before he saw them, or at least he heard the skeletons trying to kill whoever was stupid enough to be wandering around the tomb. Luckily for Patches though, they were usually quite well-equipped fools, or even better… clerics.

Patches mind wandered so much that he almost didn't hear the sound of something scrapping against rock behind him. He whirled around, grabbing his spear and pulling up his shield to block any incoming blows.

But before Patches was nothing but the silent cliff face, never the less he didn't let his guard down. He had learned the hard way that the skeletons in this place were able to move in the impenetrable darkness and not make a single sound. Patches kept his shield and spear ready; he kept his ears perked for any noise.

Patches eyes darted back and forth, searching for the telltale glow of giant skeletons eyes, and thus he sealed his fate. As Patches turned his back on the cliff face in search of imaginary skeletons, he failed to notice a red-eyed form hauling itself up from its handholds just out of sight.

His only warning was the quiet whistle of a blade diving at his back, and by then it was far too late. Pain exploded through the hyena as a curved blade exploded through his stomach. Patches tried to scream, but his lungs failed him as the blade twisted and tore at his vision began to fade as he lost consciousness.

Before his mind faded he felt warm breath tickle his ear as a woman's voice whispered into his ear. "Don't worry I won't let you die, I haven't had my fun yet," if Patches body hadn't been busy being impaled he would have shivered at the dark promise that voice held. With that his mind faded to black; however, he would soon find what true horror was at the hands of the chosen undead.

X Back to the present X

Lilith pulled herself out of her memories like a swimmer reaching the surface, panting for breath and clinging desperately to anything she could reach.

Her breath left her in quick rasps as her eyes darted back and forth inside the darkened sleeping pod. She kept her eyes open, stood up,and slammed her head against the metal wall of the pod. The pain calmed her; she didn't want to remember what happened in the deep of the tomb. Never the less, she couldn't help but see that very scene which would forever be emblazoned in her mind. Even now she could still smell the seared flesh and the wretched cries of the man called the Patches the Hyena as he begged. Not to be spared but rather for it to end, he begged loud and long for her to kill him.

She closed her eyes and smashed her head again against the metal of the pod trying to drive her memories away; even just thinking about it caused the beast to stir.

Deep within her mind chains rattled.

Within the dark recesses of her mind, bound by great chains and, nails driven through its limbs, and impaled with countless swords, the beast smiled at the memories. It paid no mind to the chains or nails or swords, they were nothing but desperate attempts of the woman from which it was born to control it. Sooner or later the woman would lower her guard, and then it would be free. Be but until then it would wait, with the endless patience of a predator. Sooner or later it would free itself and satiate its thirst for blood.

* * *

Authors note: as i mentioned in the first upload of this chapter i am once more on a semi coherent writing scheduled and there should not be any other long absences.

thank you very much for reading

REVIEW... please *puppy dog eyes*

P.S. if another long absence does occur it will probably be that the tsundere reader i mentioned at the beginning of this chapter has murdered me for pointing out she is a tsundere.


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